Today, April 6th, is my birthday - and today I am 27! Baking a cake on the morning of my birthday has become a ritual; I will research cakes, re-visit past recipes and add consider how I can change it up for about a week before the day - and that morning I make my final decision... this birthday's was: Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Raspberries.
So today I hopped out of bed, drove to the market to pick up some needed ingredients, came home and jumped in to my favorite pair of Eberjey pj's, threw my apron on - this time my vintage apron I brought back from Norway last summer - danced around to some Rolling Stones, and began baking...
Once the cake went in the oven I decided to take a break and have a look at my old recipes journal that I started writing when I moved to NYC. Here there are plenty of recipes for every occasion that I usually created with my close friends in the city.
True Aries at heart, a quick second of reflection on your birthday is necessary every year and always makes me a little nostalgic; the years pass by quickly and I can honestly say that the unknown future is always a blessing. Every year gets better and better, can you tell I love birthdays? Side note, I'm looking forward to adding my improved Red Wine Chocolate Cake to the list of recipes that I've left behind for almost 2 years!
As I mentioned before, this is one of my all time favorite cakes, and today I changed it up a bit by adding a little dark-cocoa powder and a handful of crushed raspberries to my batter. I also decided to make two accouterments for my cake: raspberry & red wine jam, and dark-chocolate & raspberry frosting.
The jam is something I always make for this cake; I usually dress the cake using this as the "frosting" but this morning I decided to make a traditional dark-chocolate frosting to pair with the raspberries and red wine. Yum.
Deliciously rich and smooth in texture, this cake is perfect for me and always a treat. Anyone who loves chocolate, dark chocolate, raspberries, and red wine will fall madly in love with this cake; I promise. And now I'm ready to kick off my birthday, head down town, and relax with some family, friends, and my wonderful boyfriend- cake in hand!
...Some words of wisdom from C.S. Lewis for the birthday girls: "You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream".
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