Happy Birthday Heather!

I'm a little late, but still on time. Just wanted the blogience to know Heather is thirty-one today and I don't know why I've been so blessed to have a wife like her. I would like to post a handful of fun pictures of her, but she never lets me take here picture. Oh wait, I did find a couple....


I won't mention the continued unborn state of my second daughter because this is Mommy's day.

Love, Brian

Yummy Chocolate Cake

This is our favorite birthday cake recipe. It tastes like a chocolate bar in cake form. It's great with a silky butter cream icing!

Chocolate Velvet Cake

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp instant coffee or espresso

1 cup of boiling water

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1.Preheat oven to 350, spray cake pan with Pam and dust with flour. You can use 2 rounds or a 9x13 pan.

2.Mix cocoa with coffee, add boiling water (you can also use 1 cup of freshly brewed coffee instead of the water and instant coffee). Cool slightly and add vanilla, set aside.

3. Cream butter and sugar, beat till fluffy and white. Add eggs one at a time, beat well.

4.Whisk flour, soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Add about 1/3 dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, followed by 1/3 coffee mixture. Repeat twice more till all is incorporated. Then scrape sides and beat about 15 seconds longer.

5. Divide batter into pans, bake until just firm in the center, about 25 minutes for rounds and 30 for 9x13. Assemble and frost once cool!

Bern blowing out the candles on his spider-man cake.

Little miss and her tinker-bella cake.