big, fat chocolate cake

my little lydia, back in the day, helping dannell with her candles

A couple people have asked about the recipe for this cake. It's nothing I invented. I found it in a cookbook a long time ago--the Ideals Family Cookbook, from like 1974? I'm not that good at Roman Numerals in size 4 font.

Anyway, here it is:

Black Midnight Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 c. milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup black coffee, warm or cold, whatever

Stir it up. Grease and generously flour two round pans. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for an hour or so and gently pluck layers from the pans. Run a spatula or pancake turner around the edges, lifting gently as you go. Turn the cake over toward your palm, gingerly lift the pan and look for stuck spots. Set the pan back down and gently try to loosen those spots with the pancake turner and try tipping it again. Perfection is NOT necessary, just get it out of the pan mostly intact.

Set the bottom layer on a tall fancy cake stand, and the other layer on the upside down pan to finish cooling. Cool completely before frosting. No warmth should be evident against your palm when you feel of it. If it's taking too long, put the layers in the fridge or the freezer for a little while.

Frosting:

l pkg cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 1/2 bags of powdered sugar
milk to spreadable consistency

Beat the cream cheese and butter with a splash of milk. Add 1 bag powdered sugar. Add powdered sugar from the second bag, alternating with splashes of milk until frosting is fairly stiff, but not unreasonably so. (When you lift the beater out, it forms a point, but is still creamy.)

Spread generously on cooled cake. If the frosting is too thin or the touch is not quite light enough, spreading will tear the cake itself, so put on plenty and smooth it around. (Yesterday I elbowed the cake accidentally while digging in the cupboard, and that was fun. I washed off my elbow and patched the spot with extra frosting. Nobody cared.)

Sprinkle. Light candles. Sing to the birthday person. Eat. A cake will serve 20 if cut in thin slices. If there are only six of you--wow. love, Val

party on the patio!

Okay, way before the party on the patio, we met at the little pool for fun.






We had supper, lots of hyper kids running around, dogs, racket...opened presents on the patio, but by time for cake, the mosquitoes drove us inside.



l.c. is getting his eye teeth, so the nose runs. nevermind that. it's the eyes--his gorgeous eyelashes, wow.

back to presents:
little jay and b.g. he's tall enough to get him up to the wind chimes


b.g. and his auntie kirsten
my parents and dan and alicia--what is so darn funny?





Jay's day started out this morning with going to one son's house to investigate whether an animal was inside. (Their dog was certain there was.) He couldn't find it. More investigation is necessary.

The day ended with him going to help another son with a flat tire, and get ice for the party, and our daughter in law showed up here and slapped five boxes of garlic toast on the cupboard. (In view of the flat tire, please, forget the garlic toast. I can make some with hamburger buns from the lake.) Maria did the garlic toast with directions from her sister in law, baby on hip.

It was all good--a beautiful summer day, a beautiful evening, a very happy birthday for a great kid.

We all know THIS will be the birthday she'll remember in vivid technicolor...Koda-chro-oo-ooome, give us the nice bright colors, give us the gree-ee-eens of summer, makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah..

and no other birthday will ever be as amazing as when she turned six.... then she'll get older and reality will intrude, as it does for us all, when we find out our birthday is not an actual National Holiday...Sigh. Life is so sweet, it hurts--kind of like a Hershey bar for breakfast.

Six, where all the magic is. Oh, sweet Jule, I love you so, Mom

six

It's her birthday. She's six today.

Six years ago she was born in the middle of a summer night after we'd spent the day at the beach.

Jay ran upstairs to get Heidi and Kirsten, who were home from college for the summer. They came downstairs to say hi to Julia.


In the morning, when Tim woke up, we wondered what he'd think about this. He was not even two yet, and we weren't sure what he even understood about the new baby.

He climbed over the foot board of our bed and saw Julia. He dove in the middle, wrapped his arms around her, and welcomed her like an old friend, "A bee-bee! Mine bee-bee!" He was serious too, wouldn't give her back, beamed, "Mine bee-bee, Joo-yah!"

He never even seemed jealous, just really happy to have her.



She's the tenth child, mine bee-bee too. She's like the cherry on top of a big, giant sundae of family.



some of us on the 4th of July, 2004

She was born shortly after our 25th wedding anniversary.

As we watched her and her dad swimming last summer, I told a friend I'm so glad I didn't know ahead of time about Julia, how many decades our family would span, because I really don't think I could have waited twenty-five years for this one. I couldn't have stood it.



Yesterday at the lake, her dad took Sam for a walk first thing in the morning. Julia and I were the only ones awake and she climbed into bed on her dad's pillow, and showed me the Hershey bar she'd brought from the fridge.

I don't want chocolate that early, but I ate a few bites--bites so sweet they hurt my mouth--and held Julia in the crook of my arm, her blonde hair everywhere, a breeze blowing the curtains over the bed. Lucky me.

Tonight everybody's coming for supper--Julia's asked for tortellini, and I have a cake to bake.

Okay, we say this all the time because it's the truth: The whole family is better with you in it.

Thank you for being my girl. love, Mom

perfection

The weekend? Perfect.

Little Jay brought Sumi and Larry along, and Maria had Heather, and they are all pleasant people, agreeable, nice kids. It was very peaceful.

sidney loves larry

s'more

heather and maria

perler beads

We ate and swam. They rode the bikes all over. We went on a boat ride, watched movies in the evening--Ferris Bueller's Day Off, that old classic. I'd forgotten so many things, it was like seeing it all over again.









I deep fried the shrimp.

They stayed up until the wee hours playing an old, old video game upstairs.

The next day, more of the same.

gathering sticks at the sandbar





and seaweed





our patient neighbor, dori, admiring their sticks



then they built this weird thing
Storms rolled in during the evening, so we opened all the windows to the cool air while I cooked the shrimp. They put in Avatar, a movie Heather brought, and watched that as the thunder rumbled until late in the night.

trying to beat the storm back



Sunday morning we were at the grocery store and there was finally room enough in the freezer for a bucket of ice cream, so I brought back a Gustafson's pail--caramel swirl. (I was looking for the root beer swirl we had back when Renee and Todd were with us last year, but they didn't have it.)

Anyway, divine ice cream cones--they talk about food texture and mouth feel, and why is this particular ice cream so superb? I checked the ingredients: Milk, buttermilk, cream, sweetened condensed milk... oh yeah, all of that.


Anyway, we hated to leave, stayed on the beach playing until it was almost 7pm.

gotta have a bit of this, i guess



But nobody was hurt, and we are home and the washers are churning laundry. Time for bed. love, Val

Aww, a sweet Thursday

okay, that's a half a So-Big. lookin' good, buddy.


It was hot today, but no humidity, just a fresh breeze and lots of sun.


We had b.g. here for the day, and here's the main thing to know about him: He does all his own stunts. He could get a stunt double. We have lots of teddy bears who could fill in, but no.

here's where he plays piano like beethoven...or elton john. then he forgets to hold on, and spins out and falls in the shoe pile, and maybe bumps his head, which really makes him MAD. everyone hates a bumped head. dang, that hurts. hang on,you crazy musician.

Keeping him safe from disaster is the mission of the day.

his mama pumps all this milk for her own stunt-baby



the gang in the family room




Okay, look at Tim's pajamas: the snowman shirt and the hulk shorts. swear to goodness, these pajamas are sold in matching sets. Oh yeah.

Tomorrow is Friday. Yes, it is. love, Val