Birthday Feast

Today we celebrated my husband's birthday and, in typical fashion, I spent most of it in the kitchen making a (hopefully) wonderful dinner for him. I started this morning with a complicated cake - "Fudge Ribbon Surprise Cake." I was in such a hurry to get it started I did it all without coffee! Anyway, if a cake requires more than 1 bowl, it's complicated. This was 2 bowls and a pot in which to melt the chocolate. The last time I made this particular cake was 19 years ago, for the same guy. I was baking in a dorm kitchen without a lot of gadgets or even mixing bowls, so it's no wonder I have a memory of it being the hardest thing I've ever made. It really isn't. It just requires stuff I didn't have at the time. Like space. And bowls.

Once everything was in the oven, I could make coffee, and we finally had breakfast around 9:30. While the cake layers cooled I worked on the stuffing for the duck - regular bread stuffing but with apple pieces mixed in. A few hours later, after getting the kids some lunch, I frosted the cake, using a fudge frosting. I'm not usually so talented when it comes to frosting things, but see for yourself; I think this one came out great.After the cake was done, it was time to get the duck in the oven. As I've mentioned before, I have had issues with my oven not working correctly and things taking too long, so I made sure I got the duck in the oven a full hour before I had originally planned. That was the absolute right thing to do. The duck had the apple stuffing and was seasoned with salt, maple pepper, and thyme.
Lastly, the side dishes - I went pretty simple, with maple glazed turnips (which didn't really taste very maple-y) and green beans with butter. The turnips took longer than expected, too, but that gave the duck more time to rest before carving. And, no, the almost 5-year-old wouldn't go near any of this. Peanut butter was also on the menu...

Dinner was lovely. There are very few leftovers. I plan to try to make turducken soup again - that was really yummy and I think I remember what I did. After a break for presents, we had cake. It's never official until you've had your cake.
Happy Birthday!