Happy Birthday Zach!

Yesterday, December 13th, marked the occasion of Zach's Birthday!

A month ago or so, I asked Zach if I could plan a day of surprises for his birthday, and he bravely said yes! :-)

(Even Ruby wanted to help plan the festivities... :-)

We began the day with brunch at Front Page News, a downtown Atlanta restaurant famous for their New Orleans style brunch. We had spent at leisurely morning at home, complete with Zach's present unwrapping (I was so excited about giving him his presents, I was very glad he wanted to open them right away! :-), so by the time we arrived at the restaurant it was properly lunchtime, which seemed the perfect occasion for Zach to try the shrimp po'boy, which was fabulous...

I opted for the brown rice jambalaya with soy-sausage, which, while it wasn't nearly as good as Zach's homemade jambalaya, was still scrumptious nonetheless!

Needless to say we both needed to-go boxes, because we had to save room for our next stop... Tea and birthday cake at my parent's condo! :-)

The next event was a total surprise for Zach... I took him to a local "green," organic spa for a massage! I've only had a massage once in my life, and was completely enthralled with the experience, so I was quite excited for Zach to get to have the full relaxation treatment on his birthday. I specifically picked this spa because they also have more of a medical, physical therapy focus which I knew would appeal to Zach's scientific side... and sure enough, he loved it! :-) Yay!

We spent the rest of the afternoon browsing through used book shops, then Zach suggested Tex-Mex for dinner, leading us to the best enchaladas we've ever tasted...

Our last stop of the night was the biggest surprise of all... For the past few months Zach has been mentioning that he's never been to a comedy club, and hinting that perhaps we should try out some live comedy, so I surprised him with front and center tickets to the fun and funky Laughing Skull Lounge!

Naturally, of course, I couldn't allow Zach's birthday to arrive without baking him a birthday cake! :-) Since we'd already had cake with my parents, though, Zach elected to save the cake I'd baked him until tonight, and since I'm a huge fan of continuing the celebration, I happily agreed with Zach's excellent suggestion. Now, those of you who have read about previous Zach-days might already recall that Zach's favorite cake, and long-standing birthday cake, is Red Velvet. This year, though, I decided on a little twist - a Mocha Velvet cake, with a vanilla-cappuccino glaze!

Mocha Velvet Cake with Vanilla-Cappuccino Glaze

½ cup light, nonhydrogenated vegan margarine
1 ½ cups raw turbinado sugar
2 eggs
2 T cocoa
2 oz strong brewed coffee
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 ¼ cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp vinegar

~ Grease and flour the sides of two 8X8" or 9" round cake pans. Line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.
~ Cream together the marg and raw sugar.
~ Add the eggs, and beat well.
~ Make a paste with the cocoa and coffee, and add the paste to the sugar mixture.
~ Stir together the salt, vanilla, and buttermilk.
~ Add the buttermilk mixture alternately with the flour, starting and ending with flour.
~ Mix together the soda and vinegar, and immediately fold it into the batter.
~ Divide the batter between the two cake pans, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes - until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
~ Turn the cakes out of the pans immediately to cool on wire racks.
~ When the cakes are cool, split each cake horizontally into two layers with dental floss (Yep, dental floss! Best baking trick ever :-). Assemble the cake, spreading a bit of glaze between each later, then frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining glaze...

Vanilla-Cappuccino Glaze:
Cook 5 T flour, 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, and 3/4 cup milk over medium heat while stirring constantly, until a thick paste forms. Remove the paste from heat, and beat with a fork or spoon until cool. Cream 1 cup light, olive-oil blend butter with 1 cup granulated sugar. Add 1 tsp vanilla and the flour paste, and beat until frothy. Yum... :-)


Thus, we did indeed continue the celebration tonight...

Truly, the celebration continues all year, though, because every day I am so incredibly grateful to have Zach beside me in life...

Happy Birthday, Darlin'!