Birthday Cake, aka – if you DO have a flame thrower…

Billy and Lee offered to host an early birthday dinner for me, since I will spend my birthday in Europe. We decided to combine the dinner with our regular Twenties and Thirties Design Team evening.

Misty, Brian, and their boys, Don, Lindsay, Eric, Daniel, Lee, Billy and Liam were all there. Misty made some fantastic appetizers: asparagus frittata, potato frittata and cheesy poofs (not their real name, but we have to go with the South Park reference). Billy and Lee cooked spare ribs. Lindsay and Don made a lovely spinach salad. We all took turns holding Liam. Don was the only person who got caught on film! He had a great time holding Liam, and actually said to Billy, “Why didn’t you all have a baby sooner, this is great!”

Billy let me pick the kind of birthday cake I wanted. I picked chocolate cake with Italian meringue. Because the meringue is not strong enough to support cake layers, he added chocolate ganache between the layers. It was amazing! He actually used a flame thrower to finish the top of the cake.