A special cake for an amazing lady

Several months ago, while talking to my friend Jennie, she told me that she might be seeing more of me in May and June. Her mother has been affected by tremors for years and they had been getting to the point where she needed help to be able to function. She could barely hold a glass of water without her hands shaking. She soon discovered that Froedert hospital here in Milwaukee had one of the best neurosurgery teams in the state and went through an initial consultation. She was accepted as a candidate and the appointments were set for her pre-op appointment and the two surgeries required for her procedure. Both surgeries were scary for Jennie and her parents. After all - it's brain surgery. But she made it through both with flying colors. What an amazing woman. And my friend, being the awesome person she is, shaved her own head when her mother had to have hers shaved for the surgery.

Anyhow, the day of Jennie's mom's second surgery happened to be the same day as her birthday. When Jennie told me that after the first surgery, I said right away that I was going to make a cake for her mom. She may have been in the hospital, but dang it she was going to have her cake and eat it too! I asked Jennie what her mom's favorite color and cake flavor were, and she said yellow to both, and that yellow roses were her favorite. I didn't have any royal icing roses left and didn't have time to make more, so I did the next best thing - I made yellow roses with buttercream! The cake itself didn't even require any baking on my part. I used three cake layers that I had wrapped up and tossed in the freezer a couple of months ago. They were still just as moist as the day I had made them. The outside of the cake is vanilla buttercream and the layers are filled with the same.

Jennie's mom didn't know that a cake was on its way, so when I walked through the door to their hotel room, said, "I hear it's someone's birthday today" and presented the cake, she was so happy I almost started crying. I honestly have so much appreciation for everything she has gone through and her strength through all of it!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Silver. And many, many more!

Happy Easter!

Every year I make a cake for Easter, and this year was no exception. I went a bit simpler this time around, just because I was also hosting dinner. But I wanted the cake to be special, so I made a new kind of filling to go inside - lime curd! Last year my dad had bought a ton of limes at the grocery store and my mom had already had a ton of lime juice in the freezer so she gave them to me. Note to my readers - you can buy limes and lemons, juice them and put the juice in ice cube trays, then freezer bags when the juice is frozen. That way whenever you need a little bit of lime or lemon juice for a recipe, it's right there!

This lime curd was so easy to make. Lots of stirring but I didn't mind because the lime curd smelled wonderful. So fresh and summery - a real breath of fresh air after a long winter! Added to the yellow cake and it was delicious.

Here is my finished cake - complete with the last of my royal icing flowers. Which means that the next chance I get, I'll need to make a batch of royal icing to make more flowers for next time! And to add a little bit of fun, I piped some grass on top and put some jelly beans in there too - courtesy of my wonderful husband. He's a truck driver and one of his stops the week before Easter was at the Jelly Belly factory about 45 minutes south of where we live. One of the perks of being a truck driver - free jelly beans!

Happy Easter!