The Legend of Thousand Hills Farm

Bob's Birthday

Saturday Bob turned 6!  I can't believe that she's so old already.   Bob was our first baby born in this house, our first homebirth, our first waterbirth, and the first baby where we said, "It truely is a miracle this baby is here."  We've always acknowledged the miracle of birth, but after Bob was born and her cord was cut, we found a *knot* in her umbilical cord ~ and it wasn't a loosely tied knot either.  We stood in awe of the protection of God's hand upon this child. 

Bob tends to be somewhat eccentric in her personality, and is fearless.  We have a rope hanging out of one of our big Maples in front of the house, and Bob loves this "swing".  She will swing so high on it, that it makes this Mama nervous!  She loves to play football with the boys, and yet loves to wear pretty things.  One of her birthday presents was getting her ears pierced.  She had the option of two people doing it, and having it all over at once, but she insisted on only one person and having the ears done one after the other.  Not a tear, not a grimace, she was a champ.  And, she looks adorable with her ears pierced!  One the way home (this was the day before her birthday), Levi told her, "Bob, you should be a NASCAR driver."  She replied, "Levi, I'm 5."  Like, DUH!  We got a good giggle out of that one. 

Bob has a great sense of humor and often has us chuckling over something she has said or done.  She has a very exuberant personality and loves to sing.  Right now she is very into Christmas songs ~ I may have to ban them.

We had a quiet day on Saturday.  The older boys went to a Shock game (arena football), and Logan spent the night at Grammie and Pak's, so it was just Mike and I, the girls and the little boys at home.  Let me tell you, when you have 8 children, but only 4 at home, and those 4 are 7 and under, it's odd!  Takes some getting used to, and it's considerably more quiet than when everyone is home.  We opted to go ahead with presents and birthday cake instead of waiting.  I went toRecipezaar and found a delicious birthday cake!  It's called a Jeanne's Style Birthday Cake. 

Notice, no cute, girly decorations ~ "Mom, you know I love Lightning."  So, Cars it was.  It was small, only an 8"x8", but it was perfect for us on Saturday.  Here is the recipe.

Jeanne's Style Birthday Cake

Base

1/3 c shortening (I used Butter)

1/4 c icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 c all-purpose flour

1/3 teaspoon baking powder

Cake

1/2 c shortening (I used Butter)

3/4 c sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c milk

Frosting

1/2 c milk

2 Tblsp all-purpose flour

1/2 c butter

1/4 c shortening

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 c icing sugar

1 dash salt

 1.  To prepare base, cut shortening(butter) into dry ingredients, mix well.

 2.  Pat firmly and evenly into an 8" square pan and bake at 350* F, for 10-12 minutes.  Cool.

 3.  NOTE: The base and cake are baked seperately.

 4.  For cake:  cream shortening (butter) and sugar; add eggs and vanilla, beating well until fluffy.

 5.  Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk.

 6.  Pour batter into a greased and floured 8 inch square pan.

 7.  Bake at 350* F for 25-40 minutes.

 8.  Frosting: in small saucepan, stir together milk and flour.

 9.  Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and smooth.  Cool.

10.  On highest speed of mixer, beat cooled flour mixture with butter, shortening, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy.

11.  Blend in icing sugar and salt; continue beating until frosting is very fluffy.  This will take at least 15 minutes.

12.  To assemble cake: place shortbread  base on serving plate; spread with small amount of frosting.

13.  Place cake on base. (You can split the cake for layers.)

14.  Cover top and sides of cake with remaining frosting.  If desired, garnish sides of cake with shaved semi-sweet chocolate.

***I used butter instead of shortening on the recommendation of on of the reviews for this recipe.  It was a heavy, almost pound cake type cake.  I didn't split the cake, and there would not have been enough frosting to fill a layer and frost the cake, but if you were going to do something else, like a custard for filling, it would be yummy!  It was kind of a stinker to put together, I ended up breaking the shortbread base, but it tasted delicious!  Also, I only beat my frosting for about 10 minutes before I got tired of it, and it was fine.  Very light.