Well! It just so happens that Tuesday Café not only falls on a Tuesday, this week, it also falls on MY BIRTHDAY!
So I thought I’d have a party and give YOU a present, which you will get at the end of this story.
Do remember your childhood birthday cakes? I recall chocolate, something my mother made with flour, sugar, cocoa, butter and an egg. Sometimes we had to wait for the chicken to lay the egg. Sometimes there was icing, and sometimes not. But there was always a nickel or dime in the cake. She’d drop the coin in the batter before placing the cake in the oven. If you ended up with the piece that had the nickel or dime, you were lucky, and rich.
Some birthdays were just brothers and sisters. Other times, cousins joined in. Always you got your picture taken. In fact, as I sort through old photos (hard copy, not jpeg) I can date these pictures by the number of candles on the cake.
So help yourself to a piece of virtual cake, pour a cup of coffee and tell me about your childhood birthday cakes. Did you have any special traditions?
And my gift to you comes this Friday – until the following Tuesday – when you can download a Free Copy of my novella Angel Wings. A few of my friends have already read it and they tell me they liked it. I hope you do too.
And now let’s sing Happy Birthday!
(birthday candles from photos.com #140210141)
Happy Birthday, Suzanne! I hope your day is fabulous and the come year even more so. 🙂
Happy B-Day, honey. Have an awesome day.
Happy birthday Suzanne! I remember those cakes–my Mom’s specialty was chocolate layer with whipped cream between the layers and chocolate frosting…yum!
Happy Birthday Dear Cousin Suzanne!
Yes those birthday cakes our Mother’s made may not have been fancy but they sure were baked with LOVE as the most important ingredient. I cannot even begin to imagine having 8 or nine children to bake for as our Moms did.
After Mom died a couple of years ago I got her old rectangular aluminum cake pan. It was worn so thin that it had a pinhole in it. I kept it anyway out of sentiment. Over the years that pan held cakes which made every special occasion a delicious memory.
So many times we siblings would crowd around the old wooden table elbowing one another for a chance to help the birthday boy or girl to blow out their candles. Sometimes there would be coins in the cake as you remembered and occasionally I recall Mom making boiled icing which I considered to be a rare and fancy concoction. It sat like a fluffy cloud on the cake in pink sticky peaks which dared our willing little fingers to scoop them.
Have a wonderful day. I hope someone bakes you a cake. Do it for yourself if you have to so that your kitchen will smell warm and sweet just like it did when your Mom baked for you.
God Bless and lots of love,
Cousin Bethy
Here’s Mom’s recipe for Boiled Icing if you ever care to indulge.
So easy yet decadent.
1 egg white
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 cup boiling water
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Combine and whip at high speed with mixer till fluffy
Tami, Roxy and CJ – thanks for stopping by!
It’s been a great day so far – even the emergency dentist appt, because I broke a crown. But, good news, the crown is under warranty. Who knew?
Bethy – Thank you so much for the Boiled Icing recipe AND all those memories.
I will make that icing, but not today. Ryan, Liz, Makita and Kyle are all coming for supper and Crave Cupcakes tonight.
So I’m thinking, a cake and that icing tomorrow. It is, after all, my Birthday WEEK!
Happy birthday, Suzanne. I’m munching on your virtual cake and singing “Happy Birthday, Suzanne!!!” My mom always made angel food cake and after it was cooked, wrapped the pennies and nickels and dimes in wax paper and stuffed them into the cake before she put on the icing. I remember the excitement of finding a coin. Oh, happy days. 🙂
Hi Sheila – another coin cake! I think I’m going to have to reinvent this tradition for my little family.
With Aunt Mary’s icing. (Bethy’s mom)
With my own kids, I haven’t done the coins, but we have always done cake or cupcakes, and always candles and singing.
Happy belated birthday Suzanne!!! Hope your day was as wonderful as you are! You got me thinking about childhood birthdays – only I wasn’t a big fan of cake. So by the time I stopped having a party of my school friends, at 12 years old, my Mom started putting the candles in a lemon meringue pie. YUMMMM – My favorite!
As one of those who LOVED ANgle Wings I’ll be encouraging everyone to pick up your ‘gift’ on Friday!
Lemon Meringue Pie with Candles . . . now there’s a TRADITION!
So glad you enjoyed Angel Wings.
I hate that your blog comes to me a day late, ever week. So forgive me for being late to the party. but Happy Birthday
glad you could make it, Louise. and in this virtual world, it really doesn’t matter when you get here :o)