Belated Birthday Cake

The tradition started years ago when Joe and I were in college. My husband is anything but an aspiring baker and it's probably for the best. Since baking and cooking are my ultimate passion, I prefer that he not step foot in my kitchen! But I decided to make my birthday the one and only exception. When I was living in the OHSU dorm he surprised me with an angel food cake that he had accidentally poured into a bundt cake pan rather than an angel food cake pan. Still turned out delicious. This evolved into the tradition that I started once we got married and challenged him to make the cake from scratch. The man can follow a recipe, I'll give him that. And if you've ever made an angel food cake from scratch you know what a task it can be (beating an entire dozen egg whites!) But I never imagined the cake would turn out better than any I had ever made from scratch. I admit I was frightened (afterall... I'M the baker in the family.) But to my relief, he permanently limited his baking to a "birthday only" status. And from then on it became the ultimate challenge. "What would you want if you could have ANY cake at all... if it didn't matter how many calories it had?!... that's what I want to make for you..." So the next year he made a german chocolate cake and I was astonished.

This year the excitement grew from the moment I realized that my birthday was only a few short weeks away. Then the excitement got demolished when we learned that Joe would be gone for army training for the weekend of my birthday. :( I had searched the recipe files for the perfect cake and was sad that it wouldn't be created this year. But to no avail, he proved true to his word and spent hours in the kitchen yesterday creating the perfect cake. I took one bite and fell in love all over again. I do have to say, though, that my husband is both a procrastinator and a perfectionist. So while the cake was absolutely amazing... it wasn't completely done until 10:30 Sunday night. Red Velvet Cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting. And while I thought it was amazingly delicious and extremely impressive... the perfectionist says there is room for improvement and better cakes yet to come! Watch out world...