A birthday celebration...

My dad's birthday is tomorrow, March 10, so last night we got the whole family together to celebrate. I was put in charge of making a cake and helping my mom cook dinner (something she only has to do once a year now that my dad is the one who stays at home while she goes to work.) For a cake, I decided to try Martha's yellow butter cake recipe and her dark chocolate icing. The cake was actually pretty easy to do, unlike her white cakes where you have to deal with egg whites and such. The cake turned out denser than I had expected, but it was still flavorful and yummy. The icing was actually the most time consuming part. I had to finely chop a pound of semi-sweet chocolate, then melt it, then let it cool, then beat it into butter and sugar. It was extremely rich, but went well with the cake. I topped it all off with Hershey Kisses, my dad's favorite!

The party itself turned out great. We all met up at my parent's house. I grilled up some steaks (which I fear got a tad bit charred, but we are blaming that on my dad's grill cleaning abilities), my mom made slow cooked green beans (my sister's favorite), mashed potato casserole (one of my dad's specialties, so I have to admit, we let him make that himself), green salad, and fresh french bread. We also enjoyed some great wine from Nappa, and of course, topped the evening off with my "Kisses for the birthday Dad" cake!

Happy birthday Pops!! Here's to many many more! :)