We share with you our recipes, reviews, tips and thoughts on building a happy home together through food.
I love my wife. She knows exactly how to make my birthday special – she cooks me all my favorite foods on this day, helps pick out a stylish birthday outfit, and buys me something kick-ass every year (a sweet pair of basketball kicks this year). And more importantly, this is the one time of the year she uses the oven to bake me a delicious chocolate cake.
I am the baker at home; I go on crazy baking marathons where, in an effort to be energy efficient, I make sure I atleast cook 4, if not more, dishes once I switch on the oven. My wife? Not so much; she is much more of a stove-top cook, and the most she comes in contact with the oven throughout the year is to help take out the pizza from the oven if my hands are tied up preparing the chicken roast that will go in next.
Yet, for the past couple of years, on the night of my birthday, she surprised me by baking me a chocolate birthday cake all by herself - now, she still uses those cake-in-a-box mixes, but they still involve measuring out proper amounts of the mix-ins, mixing up the batter (a tiring job for my delicate little Princess), and baking to exactly the right temperature to avoid a not-yet-done or burnt cake. And for all her baking fears, she gets it right every year – and always makes me appreciate the simple things in life that we really need to have a wonderful life.
The world seems to get crazier and busier every year, and we always seem to be chasing happiness; this simple chocolate cake always reminds me that most of the time, the recipe for happiness begins with the little things we already have at home. There is no need for fancy icings, or painstaking layers, or even a whole lot of candles. The love and care she takes in baking me the cake, the fact that the chocolate crumb is perfect every time, and the two candles that represent the two of us sharing another year of my life together – all of that adds up to a magical birthday night.
So I began another year of my life sharing this simple cake with the person I will share the rest of my life with. I made a few resolutions this year, the most important of which I think is to reaffirm my believe that a simple life filled with the ones we love and the little things we cherish are all that is needed for a happy time. Sure, we will gussy up this cake a bit with whipped cream or vanilla icecream later – but all that really is just the icing on the top; if the cake is filled with love and deliciousness, that is all I will really need!