So Glad to Have a Daughter*

* I actually have 3 daughters, but only one still living with me.

After suffering through lovingly creating birthday cakes for my two sons in July and August, it was nice to have a girly birthday to look forward to.

As I've mentioned before, Jasmine is a budding baker. She is especially good at cupcakes. Our latest, long-term volunteer brought her a gift of several baking books. Jasmine looked through them and chose a White and Dark Chocolate Torte.

I'm not sure how tortes are supposed to taste but I found the cake to be a bit dry and bland. I may have left it to cool too long.... This will definitely be something I revisit.

We didn't have quite enough white or dark chocolate so I improvised. The dark chocolate filler actually had some hazelnut/chocolate spread mixed in. The white chocolate that was supposed to cover the outside of the cake didn't quite make it down the sides so I made a batch of buttercream frosting for the sides and to decorate with.

Here is the final result:

At dinner, the day we celebrated Jasmine's birthday, we played a guess-the-jellybean-flavor game. We are hard up for entertainment here! One of us would place a jellybean in the upturned palm of someone who had their eyes closed. They would eat the jellybean and try to guess the color. We had really cheapo jellybeans so it was HARD. When it was my turn, I closed my eyes and put my hand out. Feeling the jellybean in my palm I popped it in my mouth....and instantly knew something was wrong! Instead of a smooth, rounded morsel the thing in my mouth was dry, crusty and jagged. I spat that thing out right onto the table faster than you can say jellybean. Tom had thought it great fun to substitute a crust of bread in place of a jellybean. He laughed so loud and long that he completely freaked out baby Peter (who was sitting on his lap) who proceeded to sob and cry and needed to be cuddled. Good times!

After dinner we moved to the living room for Jasmine's birthday movie: New Moon

I have to give props to my husband who sat patiently through the entire movie asking questions like, "Is it a full moon?" "So how exactly are vampires killed?" and also making observations such as, "Bella's a little messed up isn't she?" Indeed!

When the movie was (thankfully) over, we went back to the dining room for cake. 

Overall, it was a really nice evening. 

Happy Birthday, Jasmine!

Exactly one year ago: What do Babies and Fish have in Common?