The Baker's 80th Birthday Party!

Sheesh, I thought it had been a while the last time I posted, but now I've actually gone over a month without posting!  Between moving family members, pickle-making parties and birthdays, I haven't had much time to try new recipes or blog.  Hopefully that will change this month as I warm up for the annual United Way bake sale that I'm organizing for Hallowe'en Monday.

We had a major family milestone on September 16th - my little mom, The Baker, turned 80!  Definitely a big event, but she asked that we not have a party "like the last one", her 75th, when 35 family and friends surprised her.  This time, it was a "Kaffee und Kuchen" Sunday afternoon party, which for non-German speakers means coffee and cake.  But we Europeans like to do things a little differently - we have the coffee/tea and drinks with baked treats *before* we eat anything else.  Hey, we have our priorities!  Then, for those guest who really enjoyed the party and stayed later, which we hoped would happen, we have a light buffet dinner.

This year both my lovely daughters Sarah and Megan helped with food prep and baking, for which I was very grateful.  Apart from a massive shop at Costco for the party basics, Megan made two delish salads and Sarah made gluten-free lemon bars, to make sure one of our favourite guests wouldn't be excluded from enjoying the treats.  I made Red Velvet cupcakes (Ina's reliable recipe), my buddy Vince's Tiramisu (I'll do a separate post with this recipes) and an oversized cupcake birthday cake.  For the cake, I bailed and used a French Vanilla box mix because I knew it would hold up well for the shape I was making.  Here it is before the candles were added.  Can you tell that the theme for the party and decorations was cupcakes? ;)

And here's the birthday girl being surprised with her cake!  My uncle asked if I made one for everyone - seriously, 19 of them?!?

She seemed to really enjoy the party and I know the family did too!