BERFDAY!

so, i was in connecticut for the pre-holiday weekend,
celebrating my youngest (so far) daughter's seventeenth birthday!
yeah.
that's right.
my little girl is seventeen years old!
maple star, the senior-year artist and dramatist, had a heck of a berfday,
and we spanned it together...
damn, i love that kid.
she's clever, and she's incisively selectively observant,
which means she acts like she doesn't pay attention,
but she's just quietly collecting information.
she pulls it off because she's a good actor.
that's a thing.
and she's big now, dudes.
seriously.
a grown-A* woman, taller than her big sister, even, which isn't hard, to be fair.
ha!
look at this lady:

YEAH!!!!
and what kind of cake is that?
well, it's a F*ing BERFDAY CAKE, bro.
obvi.
alright, alright, also, it's a chai-spice cake, with lemon-maple frosting.
look:

WORD!
how do you make one?
well,
if you're in an unfamiliar kitchen,
using unfamiliar equipment,
and baking it in an unfamiliar oven,
then you make it mostly with crossed fingers and good vibes.
also, you use the following ingredients:
-
*
CHAI-CAKE!
-
preheat the oven to 350℉
-
grease 2 8" round cake tins
-
in a stand-mixer (yeah, my ma has one too, duder), cream together:
1 stick vegan butter;
3/4 cup sugar;
1/2 tsp salt;
1/2 cup light brown sugar;
2 opened bags of 'bengal spice' caffeine free chai tea;
1 5oz vanilla soy yogurt.
whip that all up until soft and sloppy, the add:
2 2/3 cups flour;
2 tsp baking powder;
1 tsp baking soda;
1 tsp vanilla;
1/2 pkg instant vegan vanilla pudding;
1 cup bengal spice chai-soy-latte-
that's 1 teabag warmed in soymilk,
squeezed, and removed to leave just that spicy milk for mixin'.
whisk that up until it's as fluffy as can be,
and spoon it even;ly into your cake pans.
bake it all for 25-30 minutes, and let 'em cool completely,
before making the icing-
which consists of the following:
3 cups powdered sugar;
1 stick (8T) vegan butters;
1 tsp vanilla;
1 tsp lemon juice;
1/4 cup soymilk;
2 T maple syrup;
1 tsp lemon zest-
whipped in your mixer with the wire whisk attached-
i brought my new super-icing cake decorator maker i got for Xmas from patti and dennis,
and i worked F*ing great.
yeah.
one expert iced two layer berfday deluxe, ready with ease, and in a flash,
in connecticut, for a site-specific instructional birthday exxxplosion.
i like that.
*
so we did berfday stuff.
and we had a berfday party.
and we hung out all dang day.
i'm so happy those girls are so good.
seriously, my daughters are good people, and they're fun to span time with,
and i am grateful for the time we share-
it's never enough, and as they get older, there's only ever less of it,
so we've gotta make what we've got count for MORE.
...and we do.
it's all really happening, and that's the whole point;
never quiet, never soft.....