Happy Birthday, Brian!

We celebrated Brian's 26th birthday yesterday with a dinner at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, and cake afterwards at our house. My family and Brian's family went together. The food was great, and he had a nice birthday.

Brian and I at dinner.

With the family at dinner - somehow I cut Debbie's head off! Going around the table, Debbie, Brittany, Mallory, Robby, Mark, Brooke, Dad and Mom!

Brian's 26th birthday cake - let me explain! This was my first cake I ever made from scratch. Brian wanted a chocolate cake with strawberry filling and strawberry icing. I cooked, he did the decorations! Here is an easy cake recipe (stolen from Paula Deen) that I used to make Brian's cake. I left it in the fridge overnight and I made everything taste so good. Here it is:

2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 stick of butter (8 Tbs)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar, salt, and flour in a large mixing bowl. In a saucepan, bring to boil water, vegetable oil, butter, and cocoa. Add to flour mixture. Beat eggs, baking soda, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients. Pour into greased 13 x 9 pan and bake for 24 minutes. Because I did layers, I baked them in two round cake pans. Then bought the strawberry filling and icing. YUMMY!