#birthday

Colorful Rice Krispie Cake

7 Alternative Birthday Cake Ideas

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Last week I was virtually salivating over a birthday cake made with Pimm’s and Champagne poured into a mold to form a jiggly Buckingham Palace. Along the same lines a loyal reader sent me a link to CupofJo’s several unique non-cake birthday cake options.

I added some research of my own, and now share some of the more creative recipes I came across.

Crackle! Pop! Celebrate!

Food blogger Not Without Salt shared a recipe for a Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treat Cake with layers of peanut butter chocolate icing. It would make for a crunchy bite of cake, but kiddos would likely love this one.

Rice Krispie Treat Cake

Sprinkle Bakes, a baking and desserts blogger I regularly retweet for #yummybday made the even more attractive version Rice Krispie Treat Sprinkle Cake.

Colorful Rice Krispie Cake

Fruity Festivities

Not Without Salt is also the source for this cake made entirely of fresh fruit. In summer this would be a perfect alternative if the guest of honor eats gluten-free. As a huge fan of watermelon, I’m all over this idea. Ironically, despite the blog title, there is no salt in this recipe!

Tasty Fruit Cake

Birthday for Breakfast.

What better way to start a birthday off than with a Cake Batter Pancake Cake? I am in firm agreement with How Sweet It Is food blogger Jessica’s view that “the world would be a better place if more sprinkles were involved.” Using sprinkles in the cake batter that she cooked up as pancakes, Jessica created a tasty treat that would likely bake much faster too! Still, it could use more frosting!

Cake Batter Birthday Pancake Cake

Brownie Birthday Binge

Not as creative as the first few options, this one still takes the cake (ha ha) for chocolate lovers. No wonder this brownie stacks up as the first playful, alternative cake displayed in Foodnetwork.ca’s slide show.

Brownie Birthday stack

Ice Cream Birthday Dreams

This Have A Yummy Day ice cream wreath recipe involves making the ice cream from scratch. However, the idea alone would be easy enough to replicate with store bought. I’d want to try this one actually, with pieces of cake or brownie on the serving tray too. Oh, and definitely a chocolate sea salt caramel ice cream as the base.

ice cream wreath

Chip in for Cookie Layers

This last one would surely be my son’s favorite. He’s asked for cookie cake the last two birthdays, but this one might be in the running for next February. The Cake Blog’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake layers thin cookies with buttercream between the layers holding this tower of goodness together.

chocolate_chip_cookie_cake

Any other suggestions you’d share for alternative birthday cakes? I’d love to read about it in the comments section.

Birthdays at Buckingham

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I know, I know. I probably appear to be quite the monarchist. But there have been so many news stories about the British royals and their June birthdays.

Prince Philip turned 95 on June 10 this year. In the midst of all of the birthday fetes he had to attend alongside his wife the Queen (who gets two birthdays, remember), he took the time to write a much-publicized letter back to an English constituent who’s mother shared his same birthday.

MP John McNally explained he didn’t actually expect an answer: “To be honest I never thought I would receive a response or at best I might get a polite letter from his office,” he told the Daily Mail. “But my mother has always talked about how they share the same birthday and I thought ‘why not.’”

A letter, dated 25 May 2016 and written on Buckingham Palace paper, arrived in his return mail:

“Dear Mr McNally,

I was interested to know that your mother shares the same birthday as I do. I have to say that the older I get, the less I appreciate birthdays. Please give your mother my best wishes.

Yours sincerely. Philip.”

The Prince is reportedly not a fan of birthdays — sort of like Prince last week! Philip refused to have any kind of official celebration himself on June 10 this year. Instead confining his big day to the briefest of mentions during the service at St Paul’s that very same day commemorating his wife’s 90th.

Queen Elizabeth was more in the spirit of celebration when she remarked to the gathering:

“To everyone here today, and to those holding street parties elsewhere, I would like to say thank you for the wonderful support and encouragement that you continue to give to me. I hope these happy celebrations will remind us of the many benefits what come through when people come together for a common purpose, as families, friends or neighbors…I much appreciate the kindness of all your birthday wishes and have been delighted and moved by the many cards and messages I have received.”

No explicit word though on whether the Queen or Prince Philip, who is more renowned for his sense of humor, appreciated the jelly replica of Buckingham Palace, complete with corgis, unveiled at one London celebration of the monarch’s birthday.

Apparently, the wobbly castle created by drinks brand Pimm’s took more than 200 man-hours to make and used 35 litres Pimm’s No 1 Cup and champagne.

I will have to get the recipe for a future #yummybday post. In the meantime, learn more about the fun the Queen enjoyed along with jelly castle.

 

 

Birthday Songs Just for You

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My birthday doppelgänger?

Is Cleopatra Stratan my birthday doppelgänger? Image source

How about this for an audio adventure? See who was born on your birthday to determine what you might want to tune into next on Spotify, Pandora or iTunes.

Credit a librarian in Santa Clara County for this idea: Pat Oey posted on that county’s library blog about singers and band members with birthdays on June 3. Oey suggested that the June 3 birthday celebrant then, should be listening to Curtis Mayfield, The Birds, Phish, Suzie Quatro and No Mercy. In fact, by the blog’s logic, June 3 birthday peeps ought to listen to No Mercy twice as twin band members Ariel and Gabriel Hernandez were both born June 3.

In turning to FamousBirthdays.com to see who was born on my special day, I inadvertently typed in October 3. I was excited to see Gwen Stefani pop up – she has many a party tune. But, I had the wrong date.

So, what did that leave me for my beloved October 6?

  • Rappers Leondre Devries ad Lil Wyte
  • Pop singers Cleopatra Stratan, Aaron Pierce, Tae Brooks, Joey Diamond, and Joe Woolford
  • World music singer Millie Small
  • Neck Deep guitarist Lloyd Roberts
  • R&B singer Devvon Terrell

Not one of these artists had I actually heard of; and the fact that the majority of them are under the age of 20 was a bit depressing for middle-aged me. Turns out that Cleopatra is a Moldovian child with her own video channel. Joe was part of the UK’s Joe and Jake who competed in Eurovision 2016 (and the song wasn’t too bad). Devon Terrell is not what I would think you’d describe as “R&B” unless his rapped “Keep It Pushin’” is a marked detour from the norm.

Still, the real surprise was that I recognized Millie Small’s My Boy Lollipop from 1965.

You too can enjoy my new birthday theme song:

 

There is a dearth of good birthday music out there. As someone who on a probably too regular basis makes a mix tape, later a mix CD, and now an MP3 playlist to mark her own birthday, I am particularly happy to have this new idea of how to create a celebratory soundtrack.

Plus, with the Happy Birthday song finally going public we can look forward to some great new versions of the tune, don’t you think? After all if Google has AI that makes music now, can’t someone bring new life to this familiar ditty we all know and love. I vote for a Bruno Mars mashup or maybe a raucous rendition by Pink or a more moving adaptation by Iron and Wine.

Who would you like to hear singing the birthday song?

The Queen can’t “Pooh Pooh” this gift.

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In my diligent following of all things birthday I am often confronted with yet another article about why the Queen has two birthdays. It doesn’t seem to matter what time of year it is, although the coverage does pick up around May when she is feted in several places. (C’mon she already gets to wear a crown AND she gets multiple birthdays?! Must she rub it in?)

Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised when recently the coverage around the Queen and her birthdays informed about a new book featuring Winnie the Pooh and her Royal Majesty. Both celebrate 90 years in 2016. Pooh has many fewer wrinkles though.

I have always loved Winnie the Pooh. I was an avid teddy bear collector for years, and even in college had a Winnie the Pooh key fob. One of our favorite games to play on a bridge when my boy was little was “Pooh sticks” where you throw the stick into the water and run to the other side of the bridge to see whose stick would come out first the other side.

So I am particularly pleased to see Pooh still part of the storytelling fabric of the universe. In this case, he and Piglet want to give the Queen a present. Penned by Jane Riordan, the takes Pooh, Piglet, Christopher Robin and Eeyore through London in an open top red double decker bus, visiting the lion statues in Trafalgar Square, seeing the Buckingham Palace guards and even encountering Prince George (who is given a balloon by Piglet).

The colourful drawings in the classic EH Shepard style are by illustrator Mark Burgess, who also drew the 2009 pictures for the first authorized Pooh sequel. There’s even an audio video version narrated by the talented Jim Broadbent.

In the spirit of embracing the wonder of Winnie further, though, I share some of the New York Public Library’s fun facts about the beloved bear and his 90-year old friends:

 

  • The curious name of Winnie-the-Pooh came from Christopher Robin, from a combination of the names of a real bear and a pet swan. During the 1920s there was a black bear named “Winnie” in the London Zoo who had been the mascot for the Winnipeg regiment of the Canadian army. “Pooh” was the name of a swan in When We Were Very Young.
  • Pooh was purchased at Harrods department store in London and given by A.A. Milne to his son Christopher Robin on his first birthday, August 21, 1921. He was called Edward (proper form of Teddy) Bear at the time.
  • The rest of the toys were received as gifts by Christopher Robin between 1920 and 1928.
  • Winnie-the-Pooh had adventures with Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Rabbit, and Tigger in the 100 Aker (Acre) Wood (based on the Ashdown Forest in southern England, located near the Milne family home).
  • The stuffed animals range in height from 25″ (Eeyore, the biggest) to 4 1/2″ (Piglet, the smallest).

You can enjoy the birthday book in full and share it with the kiddos in your life for free from www.Disney.co.uk/WinnieRoyalBirthday.

A Beautiful You Day. Birthday or Not.

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I am not a Today watcher. There are many reasons, but the most obvious to those who know me is that the Today show is in the morning. I am far from a morning person.

Nevertheless, I recently saw that two women were feted by the show on their birthdays with “ambush makeovers.” It would be so fun to get a makeover with a friend to celebrate getting another year older. With appropriate makeup, you might even look several years younger — unlike the Snapchat filter that ages you markedly.

If I were to get a makeover, I wouldn’t necessarily want it to happen on my actual birthday. I prefer to treat myself to lethargy on my big day, and getting all dolled up would be too much work. Yet the week of my birthday, I’d be OK with getting swooped up for a fashion consult as if on What Not to Wear, complete with a new haircut and a rare application of makeup, alongside my best friend.

The two women featured on the show were 49-year-old and 74-year-old grandmothers. The 74-year-old told Today she was hoping the makeover would help her find new love. “I want to look beautiful and young — I’m tired of looking like a drab old woman,” she said. Kudos to her for continuing to embrace life’s romantic opportunities — maybe she’s seen a recent episode of Grace and Frankie.

The only thing I would question about ambushing these women for their birthdays is the message it sends. The birthday should be a day you get to be slovenly if you want. If you want to wear baggy pajamas all day, so be it. If you want to go out with your hair unstyled, that’s OK too.

Let’s take the birthday as yet one more day to celebrate what’s inside of women or men, rather than making them feel they need to improve their looks to be happy.

It’s easy enough to find the positive body messaging that I’d want to embrace on my birthday and every day. This post’s images are just a few examples from the Internet.

Happy Birthday every day to your inner beauty.

Birthday Inner Beauty

Image source: pinterest

 

 

Bleak Birthdays per Seinfeld

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Birthday party

Photo credit: Άbdullah ; unique via Foter.com / CC BY

It’s been more than 15 years since Seinfeld went off the air, but it’s fun sometimes to revisit gems from this American sitcom’s nine seasons (1989 – 1998).

Recently, I enjoyed a clip in which George Costanza berates Jerry for being too funny. George is certain, by contrast, he’ll fall lower in his date’s estimation. When the woman returns to the dinner table, having left to wish her aunt a happy birthday, Jerry chimes in with quite a dire view of birthdays.

In a bleak voice he characterizes birthdays of a reminder of “how little we’ve grown” and “that for the rest of our sad, wretched pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end.”

It’s true, yes, that many people see their birthdays in this light. Especially, research has shown, around the big-0 birthdays.

But I’m on the side of people such as the 100-year-old I wrote about recently who embraced his birthday on social media.

Big Birthday at 60!

In my researching this blog, I learned that people in China don’t actually pay a lot of attention to their birthdays until they are 60! There are big parties for the person each new decade they reach — getting bigger and more festive every 10 years.

My guess is this is related to the whole population-out-of-control-thing over there; with so many people being born every day, maybe they don’t want to get too caught up in celebrating birthdays until the person has proved they can last. If that’s the case, one would think this tradition will be whittled away with longevity being more expected (noodles served on birthdays or not).

Still, the perspective that 60 is a great age to reach is one I find more and more appealing as I age. In China this is an age to be proud of. Instead of marking wretchedness a la Seinfeld, this is a celebration of all that has been accomplished in the life cycle. Thus, turning 61 marks the start of a new life cycle.

Perhaps this is really the way we should be looking at birthdays universally? If we could see them as each decade as a new cycle’s beginning, we might always be able to look forward instead of getting sidetracked by the thought of how much closer we are getting to the bitter end.

 

 

 

 

 

No Birthday Parties at the Gym for me.

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There are already 1,068 reasons I couldn’t actually live in New York City. Now, while it may be fun to visit the Big Apple, I’ve come across reason 1,069.

Fitness birthday parties.

Yes, you read that correctly. There are gyms in NYC that are offering private birthday parties in their fitness centers. The guest invites friends for a group class, picks the playlist, and everyone sweats together for the birthday event.

One fitness birthday celebrant in NYC stated, “I can’t think of celebrating another year of life not working out, and I want to share that with the people I care about. There’s certainly a health component but there’s a gigantic fun component to it as well.”

Fitness Birthday Party

What me and my friends would look like at a Zumba fitness party. Photo credit: Edson Hong via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Well, don’t worry, dear reader, I will not be hosting a fitness group birthday party any time soon. Yes, I’ve learned I enjoy Zumba and Cardio Hip Hop classes for active exercise that sees me dancing and smiling (no matter that I am horribly uncoordinated). Yet, I would not go so far as to inflict fitness on others as a way to celebrate my special day.

Whether I even inflict fitness on myself on my birthday is something that I play by ear each year — and it typically loses out to another hour sleeping in or rolling over when I do wake up to read a book.

This said, I do think my athletic child would likely love taking over a gym with a climbing wall and ropes and loud dance music on his birthday. So, if Charlotte, NC, gyms want to open their doors for pre-teen parties, I’m in.

In the meantime, the only parts of the fitness birthday parties outlined in the NYC article that appeal are the customized T-shirts, custom playlists, and Champagne to drink afterwards. That knowing I could eat my cake guilt free after burning calories busting a birthday move.

 

The Frosting on the Birthday Cake

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birthday

Photo credit: V Threepio via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Why do frosting tubs never contain enough of the sugary good stuff to ice an entire cake?

I’ll admit, this thought didn’t cross my mind until I read this ChicagoNow blogger’s point of view, but she is so right.

She complains the consistency in the industry to give us cans of frosting that are always short about 4 ounces is all part of an “evil confectionary plan” and groups herself with the “Frosting Embittered Mothers of America.”

Noting that if just one company sold a bonus-sized can they would corner the market, and we would all enjoy “frosting freedom,” Kim Strickland sees only one downfall to her plan. The inability after a cake icing experience to sneak downstairs to steal a spoon of leftover icing from the container in the fridge.

Her too-familiar plight made me want to see what other advice is out there to deal with the icing issue.

Of course, there’s the make your own icing solution. Yeah, I remember back in the days before being a working mom when that was fun. If you have that much energy, you might appreciate this seven-minute recipe. Me, I see the first line about needing a double boiler, and I’m out.

I also encountered this idea for stretching the frosting in the tub – whip it up in a blender before use. Brilliant. Only now I have to wash another dish and the blender beaters, too.

Another site suggests whipping the icing with a bit of milk. Plus, they mention letting the cake cool completely before trying to frost it. Of course, we all know that’s what we’re supposed to do, but maybe I’ll be more motivated to do so next time.

I may need to bake many birthday cakes just to see which of these solutions is the best answer for me. Now that’s a good idea!

 

birthday

Photo credit: yummysmellsca via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

 

Data…Birthday Data.

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Birthday Fun Fact

Photo credit: Rooners Toy Photography via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

It’s ridiculous, really, how happy this headline made me when I saw the news alert:

“British spies abused powers to look up birthdays in intelligence databases.”

I know, I know, I should not be giddy at the idea of spies “abusing their powers.” Few among us are made happy by the idea of our governmental agencies (covert or not) abusing the databases available to them for their own purposes.

But, c’mon! Looking up friends’ addresses to send birthday cards? This is a generous act. And it tickles me to think of MI5, M16 and GCHQ agents “crossing the line” by treating their super secret spy databases to send birthday greetings.

Plus, I find it hilarious that Privacy International has brought this issue to light via a legal challenge exposing the data collected on British citizens and the egregious misuse of that information. Yes, egregious is my word there, but I can just imagine a Parliamentarian, beefy jowls a jiggling, using this word in debating this case.

Now, there are other examples in the Business Insider story that were actually worthy of upset. For instance, a US intelligence intercepting women’s phone calls or Snowden reporting he saw spies sharing people’s intimate nude photos around the office. Those instances I can see someone getting worked up about.

Still, I simply can’t buy into the slippery slope argument that someone looking up a friend or relative’s birth date or mailing address in the national databases is deserving of investigation.

I’ll even carry this fanciful issue farther and counter that it’s better that intelligence agents conveniently and quickly ascertain details about friends and family so as to free up more of their time to work on issues of actual national security.

Imagine James Bond covertly sneaking into the database to be able to directly mail a birthday greeting to Q or Moneypenny. If anything this report actually humanizes secret agents and for that the British government might be grateful.

Imagine not knowing the birthday song.

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Birthday Party

Photo credit: origami_potato via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

One of my loyal readers sent me this heart-wrenching public service announcement on the heels of a recent post about the birthday song. The ad is 30 seconds of sweet and sadness in which small children identify songs played on a recorder — only they don’t know the Happy Birthday tune.

This PSA is by the Boston-based Birthday Wishes, which helps throw parties for homeless children.

Recently, the founder of a similar organization, Extraordinary Birthdays, was recognizes as a L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth in 2015. Schinell Leake wrote about her organization’s birthday party planning goals for the Huffington Post. I want to share some of her words:

A birthday is one of the most special days in the year of a growing child. He can be the center of attention. She can be the recipient of gifts and much deserved praise.

It’s not just about celebrating a birthday — which every child deserves — it’s about being able to foster their growth, development, and self-esteem despite external circumstances. Feeling valued is every child’s basic right.

Taken together, this video and these words, get to the very heart of my love for birthdays. Birthdays are about making each individual feel special — even if you are taking the opportunity to treat yourself better for that one day.

They are a day to show our loved ones how much we care about and value them, even if we don’t get around to demonstrating it so openly every other day of the year.

I have mentioned organizations such as this before, ones that aim to make birthdays better for others with an outpouring of generosity. I can’t get enough of them. This is service to community that makes me smile (and sort of want to cry that’s it even needed) every single time.

Everyone should know what it is to be celebrated on their birthday, and I only hope this blog helps keep the momentum going.

Related reading:

Donating a Birthday

Birthday Kindness Pass It On