Everyone deserves a birthday cake. Preferably a tall, elegant cake with lots of butter and whatever your favorite combination of flavors are.

The economic crunch, work can no longer afford to get us cakes – grocery store and mediocre though they may be.

I stepped in for T’s birthday – told her she can take it home, share it here – but have it. She doesn’t particularly like chocolate, so we went with something more sophisticated.

Vanilla buttermilk cake with blackberry filling and swiss buttercream. It was leftover batter from cupcakes I made last month that I put into 6” pans and froze for something like this.

By morning, the frozen blackberries has bled all over the frosting – entertaining, but much less attractive. Very glad I took photos when I did.

This weekend? County fair cake with toasted coconut and almond filling/frosting something. For my boss’s birthday on Tax Day.