Birthdays are *always* worth celebrating!
I arrived back in Queenstown just in time to celebrate the Kiwi’s birthday. I am a big believer in celebrating ALL birthdays, even if only in some small way, and I wasn’t missing the Mister’s big day this year. It took us 7 1/2 years to figure out how to be together – I wasn’t letting another year of celebrating pass us by.
He wasn’t keen on making a big deal out of his birthday, no matter how many times I asked him to plan at least a little something. He did finally organize a drinks thing at his favorite locals bar in here QT, but he also hinted that perhaps I would make him a birthday cake? Well, that’s not a request I’m going to turn down! After asking his mom if he had any particular favorites as a kid (and realizing that I don’t have the tools or the skills to make a train or log cabin), I was at least able to confirm that chocolate was the best answer.
I combined a couple of different recipes to make this masterpiece. I used a basic dairy- and gluten-free chocolate cake recipe, which mostly came out alright in this altitude. It was a little more crumby and crumbly than I would have wanted, but I was able to hide it under the chocolate ganache icing. I also used a chocolate “buttercream” frosting to hold together the bottom layer, which may have cracked into 3 pieces when I moved it from the cake pan to the plate. (Don’t tell!) I also used drunken strawberries from my famous strawberry shortcake recipe – strawberries marinated in Grand Marnier can’t be bad, right? Layer them up, and you get one monstrously tall but super delicious cake! And when we cut it, nobody could tell that the cake wasn’t perfect. Baking secrets!
Dessert aside, the Kiwi had a great birthday! In the morning, he spent 2 hours with a golf pro (lessons and whatnot) and ordered a new set of clubs, which he’s been talking about for ages. We had lunch from our favorite sushi spot in town, and we bought a new bed! (Even though we’re not in our house yet, we’ll keep the bed for one of the guest rooms.) We went for drinks and dinner at Atlas, which is one of the Kiwi’s favorite spots anywhere. (They have a pretty decent selection of cider as well. The crushed pineapple was pretty tasty!) And the next day, since he had the day off, we lazed around for the whole day! (The weather was shit outside anyway, so we were more than content to be homebodies.)
I also may have embarrassed him publicly (on Facebook, anyway) with an old photo of us from our first reunion in London. That was the first time I had seen him since we met, nearly 3 years prior. That was also the first time I knew that our connection was special.
And now, here we are. More than 7 years in the making, and we’re finally celebrating on the same continent. Happy days!