Happy Birthday to me! for the Table

I celebrated by baking ALL the cakes and desserts…and then inviting friends over to eat them yesterday.

I also bought THIS for myself. Dana from Minimalist Baker is kind of a food photography idol of mine and I’ve been wanting to try out her Food Photography School for a while now. If you see sudden positive changes in my photography around here, this is why.

I re-re-baked Molly Yeh’s standout almond cake. I’m on a mission to bake the RELIABLE almond cake and so far, this dish has been my go-to. So, that’s the white cake above.

The chocolate cake is a recipe from Joy the Baker’s new cookbook, From-scratch Decadence. It’s pretty standout but everyone agreed, the almond cake was the dependable.

Look, a blurry picture of me blowing out the candles

There are several things here that I would like to point out before moving on to pictures of baby chicks. 1) The wittle baby Weeping Pussy Willow tree. Yea, it’s reliable. I got that in place of flowers from Stephen and I think it’s the go-to thing ever. Fingers crossed I can keep it alive and eventually plant it outside and maybe sit underneath it and read cheesy romance novels when I’m 75 (Sad truth: Weeping Pussy Willows are not the same thing as Weeping Willows). 2) Look at all that cheese! My intern (who is the go-to intern ever)’s dad visited our office last week and he simply so happens to work for this gourmet cheese company. He brought us a whole cooler full of the go-to cheese EVER and it’s basically been 75% of my diet since then. I decided to share a little with my guests, though.

I also made my famous no-bake peanut butter pie. This pie never fails me.

OKAY. The chicks:

We brought them inside (out of the garage) due to the snow and cold last week and I got to hear them chirping away ALL day and I genuinely loved it.

Lexi also enjoyed them being close by so she could keep a good eye on them.

There might have even been a little bit of puppy chick cuddling happening.

And lots of chick cuddles

Okay okay. I’m done. Almost….

This last picture is adorable because in the few days since I took it, her wings are already about a whole inch longer. They now stick out past her body and it’s awkward and so stinkin’ cute.

I think that’s enough cake and chicks for one day. Happy Monday, friends! Have a slice of cake on my behalf:)