My little sister turned the big four-oh a few weeks ago. In a way, it was just another Cape birthday. We had a Mexican feast, we had Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake, we had a shitload of people.
The big difference this year—besides this being the end of her 30’s—is that my sister is married now! We all agree that it was worth the wait. Happy next decade little sis.
My sister Anna’s birthday is on September 4th. Every year we celebrate on or around Labor Day with a big dinner and party at the Cape. By big dinner and party, I mean pretty much a regular Cape meal but with extra cocktails, cake and gifts.
For the past several years Anna has requested Mexican for her birthday dinner, but since we’ve already had Mexican a few times this summer, she decided to go back to her birthday dinner roots and have steak.
We started the evening with Anna’s favorite drink, a sidecar, made by Shane. And a virgin sugar-rimmed drink for me.
For appetizers we had shrimp cocktail with homemade cocktail sauce in lovely little yard sale-acquired martini glasses. Rose pointed out that shrimp cocktail was not an adequate dinner if we were all planning to have cake and homemade marshmallows afterwards. We assured her there was (much) more to come.
For the main event, Wayne grilled up some nice tender New York Strip steaks. My mom and Ann made iceberg wedges topped with blue cheese dressing, minced chives & tomaotes and bacon bits, loosely based on this recipe. And for a starch, we had local corn from Cotiut (the town next door).
Dessert was a masterpiece of a cake from Sweetapolita, a 4 Layer Chocolate Cake with Whipped Birthday Cake Filling and Malted Belgian Chocolate Frosting.
The cake is really supposed to be 6 layers and feature multi-colored sprinkles but I had to improvise a bit due to poor piping skills and inadequate baking pans here on the Cape. Nevertheless, everyone said it might have been one of the best cakes I’ve ever made, and I have to concur.
The frosting had a whole bunch of Ovaltine in it, which gave it a delicious malty flavor. The whipped cream filling is made extra birthday-cakey with a (this is weird) heaping tablespoon of white cake mix. The recipe is at the link above and also below with my notes.
After dinner we had a bonfire on the beach and toasted homemade marshmallows.
• Chocolate Layer Cake with Whipped Cream Filling and Malted Chocolate Frosting•
from Sweetapolita
note: original recipe calls for colored sprinkles, this is the simpler, non-sprinkle version
For the Chocolate Layer Cake:
2-1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon (330 g) all-purpose flour
3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (135 g) Cacao Barry Extra Brute Cocoa Powder (I used regular old Hershey’s cocoa powder with great results)
1 tablespoon (15 g) baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons (7.5 g) baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons (12 g) salt
3 eggs, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups (360 mL) buttermilk, room temperature
1-1/2 cups (360 mL) strong black coffee, hot
1/2 cup (120 mL) vegetable oil
1-1/2 tablespoons (22.5 mL) pure vanilla extract
For the Whipped Birthday Cake Filling:
3 tablespoons (45 ml) cold water
1 tablespoons (15 ml) unflavoured gelatin (such as Knox brand)
2 cups (500 ml) whipping cream (35-37% fat), cold, divided
1/2 cup (63 g) confectioner’s sugar
1 heaping tablespoon (15 g) white cake mix (don’t leave this out, it sounds weird but really makes the flavor)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
For the Malted Belgian Chocolate Frosting:
1 lb butter (2 cups)(454 g), at room temperature
4 cups (500 g) icing sugar (confectioners’ or powdered), sifted
3/4 cup (75 g) Ovaltine Classic (brown in colour)
1 tablespoon (15 mL) pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
8 oz (250 g) quality Belgian chocolate, chopped, melted and cooled (I used Ghirardelli chips instead, with great results)
1/2 cup (120 mL) whipping (35% fat) cream
For the Cake
For the Whipped Birthday Cake Filling:
For the Malted Belgian Chocolate Frosting:
Assembly of the (4 or) 6-Layer Chocolate Sprinkle Cake:
I start every post these days with: I know, I haven’t posted in so long. It’s true, I don’t really know where to go with the blog. Should I find a way to keep up with it, if only to have it as a resource for my family (who actually uses it a lot)? I don’t know.
What I do know is that when it’s my parents’ birthday and there’s a whole ton of delicious sushi and a brand new cake recipe, I for one am going to want to remember it—and find that cake recipe easily. So here goes.
As you may remember my parents were born a day apart, in August. Which means a celebration on Cape Cod can never not happen.
This year our dear Drew took the weekend off from his latest business venture to make, oh, 150-or-so pieces of fresh, homemade sushi for us all with help from whomever wasn’t wrangling kids at any given time. My mom hates to not help, so even though it was her birthday weekend she made an asian salad and an edamame salad. I threw in some baked tofu with miso sauce and my sister and I took on a brand new cake recipe.
Dinner was crazy, to say the least. We had little kids who were totally wound up, tweens who were sleepy and bored (but kind of wanted to make frosting), torrential rain and a ton of folks in the kitchen all day. But it was ok, it was exhausting but good.
Ok maybe I need an extra day off.
But anyhow. For all you chocolate and Nutella lovers out there, here’s the cake recipe:
• Chocolate Nutella Layer Cake •
from sweetapolita
Ingredients
For the Cake:
2 1/4 cups 285 grams all-purpose flour
2 1/3 cups 470 grams superfine sugar
3/4 cup 90 grams dark Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 1/2 teaspoons 12 grams baking soda
2 teaspoons 10 grams baking powder
1 teaspoon 8 grams salt
1 1/4 cups 300 ml buttermilk
3/4 cup 180 ml brewed coffee or espresso
2/3 cup 160 ml vegetable oil
3 eggs room temperature
1 tablespoon 15 ml pure vanilla extract
For the Frosting:
4 1/2 cups 565 grams confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 cups 340 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup 280 grams Nutella (or other hazelnut spread)
3/4 cup 180 ml full-fat sour cream
11 ounces 330 grams best-quality dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1 tablespoon 15 ml pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Instructions
For the Cake:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare three 7-inch round cake pans with nonstick spray and parchment rounds.
In bowl of electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, sift all dry ingredients, including sugar. Combine eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla in a measuring cup and beat lightly with a fork.
Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients mix for 1 minute on medium speed (you may need the plastic splash-guard that comes with mixer). Divide batter evenly among prepared pans–each pan should contain about 600 grams of batter.
Bake the first 2 layers for 20 minutes and rotate pans in oven. Continue to bake until toothpick or skewer comes almost clean (a few crumbs), about 5 more minutes. Cool on wire racks for 20 minutes. Repeat with remaining layer, and then gently invert onto racks until completely cool.
For the Chocolate Frosting:
Put all of the ingredients in a food processor, and pulse until smooth and glossy, about 1 minute. The frosting will be very soft. Refrigerate the frosting until it thickens slightly, about 15 minutes.
Assembly of the Best-Ever Chocolate & Nutella Layer Cake:
Sweetapolita’s assembly can be found here. We just did a traditional quick icing. A blob on the cake plate and a blob spread between each layer. Then we gently frosted the outside of the cake with the remaining icing and refrigerated until ready to eat (it was in the 80s so refrigeration was necessary)
We close out every summer with a birthday celebration for my sister Anna. We either have steak or Mexican, and I almost always make a cake. This year was a steak year. But first, we had sidecar cocktails, veggies, dips, cheese, crackers, ribs from the smoker, shrimp cocktail, lots of family, 8 trips to the grocery store, an epic happy birthday song, and one husband almost lost at sea.
We really earned our sidecars that night. First, we had an awful lot of people and were just plain disorganized, thus the 8 trips to the store. Then, Shane decided to go for a nice kayak as hurricane Hermine approached.
Shane is a big, strong man, but he’s no match for a hurricane. While I decided whether to be mad at him for being dead, or mad at him for not showing up to make cocktails on time, my dad and Bob kept their wits about them. Dad and Bob drove around the bay looking for a big, stranded man and found him. He arrived back and made sure everyone had a sidecar in hand just in time for Sid to serenade his Auntie Anna.
Once we had everyone more or less intact, we sat down to steak accompanied by tater tots, Iceberg Wedge Salad, and ultimately Belgian chocolate Cake with Malted Chocolate Frosting (which some folks chose to eat as a Cake ‘n Cone).
I made Belgian chocolate Cake with Malted Chocolate Frosting for Anna’s birthday two years ago. It was amazing, but the filling—though interesting with white cake mix for flavoring—didn’t seem entirely worth the effort. This year I made it with just the malted chocolate frosting and 3 layers of moister-than-moist cake. It was a tremendous hit and I’ll be sure to make it again.
Thanks to all the folks who helped out with the kids and my mental state while Shane was off battling the hurricane and possibly dead. And happy, happy birthday Auntie Anna!
We had such a tiny group at the Cape this weekend that Shane was able to do his pizza thang. He made dough in the morning, took a nap with the babe, and then started pumping out the pies around 6:00.
My mom, always the trooper, contributed two big salads which she made while tottering around on her walker with her busted up leg. I’m not sure if “pumping out pies” or “tottering around” are real expressions, but you get what I mean.
We all crammed into the smallest room in the house, because it was all candlelit and cozy—thanks Shane—and made the chit chat while we waited for each pie to come out.
The first was a simple cheese, for the kids. We had 4 kids around this weekend, 3 of which technically eat food. One kid refused to take out his pacifier or get off the couch, and another decided he’d prefer an egg. This worked out as it left us with one pizza-eating kid and plenty of cheese pizza to get the adults started.
The next pie was a non-dairy for Jenya. Shane and I thought about this in advance and remembered that delicious potato and rosemary pie from Sullivan Street Bakery. It wasn’t the same as Sullivan’s but it was really good.
Things were kind of a blur for me after that. Sid eventually did get off the couch and dragged a stool and his guitar to the middle of the smallest room in the house, where we all were. He sang Happy Birthday at the top of his lungs repeatedly, making it difficult for us to concentrate on pizza, or have a conversation.
The pies started winding down around 10pm. At that stage the kids may or may not have been in bed, but things had quieted down enough for me to register a white pizza with arugula, ricotta & lemon, and a salami, basil and garlic cheese-less pie.
The next day, I managed to catch a glimpse of Shane’s dough recipe which I’m sharing with you here. Your guess on the instructions is as good as mine.
xoxo
Sweet, sweet Cal’s 2nd birthday party on Cape Cod.
In short: Gifts, balloons, cat cake! Chowder, grilled cheese, chicken wings & salad. Cat cake! Rad leggings. Dinner (burgers, Tater Tots, man’s salad & salad). Man’s salad! Tater tots with chipotle mayo. Waffle cones with a slice of cake and two scoops of ice cream.
(That’s a slice of birthday cake, in an ice cream cone, with ice cream.
Happy Birthday Cal!
My aunt Carole was instrumental in making our little part of Cape Cod the magical place that it is. Though she’s no longer with us in body, we still celebrate her birthday together, on the Cape, on September 1st.
We kicked off the evening with Carole’s favorite drink, the Sea Breeze. For appetizers a raw bar with oysters and clams. For dinner, Shane made one of her favorites, Pasta alla Carbonara, and my mom and Cathy put together a lovely salad.
It was a sweet and bittersweet way to spend the last night of our vacation. Happy Birthday Carole.
Tonight we celebrated the birthdays of my mom, dad and mother-in-law, Helen. They were all born in the same week, back in the year of 19(ahem).
Anna & Jenya had the brilliant idea of making a simple meal for our group of 18-ish (it’s hard to get the count exactly right). We wondered what ever happened to simple, pasta-based Cape meals, where we only have three things, and why we don’t have them more often*.
On the menu was Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Tzatziki, sweet and hot Italian sausages on the grill, and a delicious salad by Rita, with Rita’s Dressing, of course.
Dinner was followed by a cake that my mom made, possibly with a little help from Rose, with “Us” written on the top in berries. “Us,” as in, happy birthday to us, not as in US(A).
It was the perfect end to a week at the Cape, we’re so sad to see everyone go, and so bummed that Shane and I were in such shitty shape for most of it. Thanks, thanks, and thanks again to all the friends and family who put up with us, picked up our slack, dried our tears, and then some. Until next year…
*Note to selves: remember this!
This is the kind of Cape day we dream of all winter long. Shane and Drew went out in the morning and caught a dozen bluefish, which essentially made Shane’s year.
Beaming, Shane spent the rest of his day messing around with his new Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker, which he got for his birthday this past spring. Unfortunately, his first attempt was a bit spotty and the ribs weren’t ready until midnight. This was fine, since we had a dozen bluefish to eat.
Before dinner, we had raw oysters on the beach with prosecco and a bonfire at sunset. It doesn’t really get better than that.
Gail is here this weekend and made her famous cheese bread, which she will tell you is totally addictive. With the help of Alicia and Rose they made about a dozen little loaves to scatter around the table. And oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
Rita prepared the bluefish with Drew’s basil-arugula pesto. We had baked potatoes and a couple of lovely salads using my CSA greens.
Love summer.
The iceberg lettuce wedges we had the other night, at my sister’s birthday party, were so good that I just had to have them—or something similar—tonight.
Rose requested steak and Shane gladly complied. Because Shane loves tomatoes with steak, and I can’t get enough lemony acidy food, we also had tomatoes in tart dressing.
• Iceberg Wedges with Blue Cheese Dressing •
makes 4-6 wedges
For the dressing:
2/3 cup mayonnaise (I like Hellman’s)
1/3 cup sour cream
several grinds of black pepper (5-10)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 teaspoons Franks Red Hot sauce
2/3 cups crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola
Combine all ingredients and stir well to combine. Let sit in fridge until ready to use
For the salad:
1 small to medium head of iceberg lettuce cut into four to six wedges
Italian (flat leaf) parsley, chopped, for garnish
small slivers of red onion, soaked in ice water for at least 10 minutes, for garnish
Cut lettuce into wedges, top with dressing, then parsley. Drain onion and garnish wedges with little slivers. Serve cool/cold.