Happy Birthday Mr. Honeybear

This is totally embarrassing, but I guess you might as well know this about me.

Forrest and I:

a) talk to each other in strange voices when no one else is around...and sometimes even in public when we forget that other people might hear us

b) we officially refer to each other as Mr. and Mrs. Honeybear

I don't really know how it all started, but it has stuck, and there is nothing that can turn my day around like being called Mrs. Honeybear.

Anyhow, yesterday was his 28th birthday, and I felt the title of this blog should give a shout out to the man himself.

 

Forrest's new fins for his surfboard bagged up in front of our antique chest 

i love this piece of furniture...the bag is a nice touch!

We love doing birthdays around Casita Cory. Nannie believed that birthdays should be celebrated all month long, and growing up I greatly benefited from her firm belief in making birthdays drag on. So, we have kind of adopted Nannie's Birthday Policy in our home. One day really isn't enough time to make someone feel just how special they are.

snapshot of the card I got for Forrest

Another tradition is that you get to eat what you want on your birthday. When we lived in Williamsburg I always asked for Plaza Azteca, because who doesn't love table-side guacamole service? Seriously. 

Forrest decided this year that he wanted Papa Johns pizza. Papa Johns. Really? But who I am to deny this wonderful man of the meal he desires on his birthday. So PJs it was.

my attempt to make Papa Johns look artistic = fail

Did I mention the b-day boy got stitches this week from a surfing incident?

We aren't big "birthday cake" people. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for butter cream icing as much as the next gal, but we try to do something different on birthdays. Forrest's favorite cake is Angel Food cake. I tried making one from scratch a few years ago on his birthday to show him how domestic I was, but I didn't realize how long it needed to cool, so it fell flat as a pancake. 

Last year I made Angel Food cupcakes from a box and topped them with homemade whipped cream and raspberries, but this year I wanted to try something different. 

I am in love with all things pumpkin. October is in the fall after all, and come mid-September I have an irrational craving for pumpkin flavored sweets. I was thinking about how on earth to combine pumpkin and angel food cake, so I Googled it up. And low-and-behold: a recipe for PUMPKIN ANGEL FOOD CAKE WITH SALTED CARAMEL GLAZE. holymolyholymolyholymoly. This link will take you to a great blog where you can find the recipe (and print it off) and pictures to guide your baking.

Here are my only additions to the recipe:
1) I poured the sauce over the cake while it was still cooling in the pan on Wednesday night (about an hour into the cooling process).
2) Thursday morning I cut around the edges with a knife, removed it from the pan and the caramel dripped down the sides
3)  Make two batches of the caramel glaze---one for the cake, one for you.

4) Serve it with a big dollop of Casita Cory Cinnamon Whipped Cream!

Here are the pictures I took while baking up this delicious birthday treat!

cake ingredients

caramel glaze ingredients

psychedelic: mixing the cream into the caramel sauce

the finished product

wanted to capture that caramel sauce

playing around with my retro camera app in the afternoon light of my kitchen

i love my cake stand!

CARAMEL...YUM

birthday wishes :)

Just an idea for those of you who aren't too thrilled with the idea of pumpkin angel food cake--I can see that glaze on apple cake or banana nut muffins. It would also be great for dipping apple slices in this time of year!