Huila double chocolate.

Take some jelly.
Take some fish.
Look at that sandwich: delish.

I’ve been dreaming of a mermaid-themed birthday party for a while. I partially realized that dream, though lighting for all photos was kind of dismal.

The cake was a coral reef cake: vanilla buttercream frosting, vanilla sprinkle cake, topped with pirouline chocolate wafer cookies, dark chocolate, caramel popcorn, and crushed honey graham crackers. Lulu and Deenosaur were my souss. Souses? How does one pluralize sous? I can only think of sous-chefs.

I baked a Vander-family coffee cake recipe that has been passed onto us from an old neighbor, Mrs. Needleman. I never met her, but I am 100% sure she knew how to make a mean coffee cake. Still, I’ve made a few edits of my own: reduced whipping time; added vanilla, nutmeg, and molasses (for homemade brown sugar); substituted mango-oj glaze.

Rana pointed out that coffee cake actually has zero coffee in it; it is meant to be eaten alongside coffee, and was probably termed as such because of its sweetness. That “coffee cake does not actually have coffee in it” seems like one of those things that you learned later in life than you’d care to admit.

An homage to Christina Tosi’s love of candy bars, I helped ring in Miss Lulu’s 21st with this one today.

Independence Day cake! Couldn’t get a good quality shot of the inside; the lighting was just terrible.