Nothing says Happy Birthday like Apricot Almond Cognac Cake!

We celebrated Eric's Birthday last week and I used the occasion as an excuse to make an elaborate cake to double as a prop for a photo shoot with my Love Birds. Baking the cake turned in to a two day affair, but it was absolutely worth it.

It's a dense apricot almond cake with a cognac and apricot glaze from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook. The recipe is meant to serve 50-75 guests at a wedding, so I halved it. The cake itself didn't rise much (9 egg yolks will do that to a cake I suppose), but it was incredibly rich and surprisingly delicately flavored.

The whole thing was then smothered in mounds of insanely velvety butter cream frosting. This was my first attempt at butter cream and I'd heard lots of horror stories. (The truth is, anything that involves a candy thermometer and an understanding of "hardball" stage of boiling sugar makes me nervous.) There were a few moments of panic halfway through when the frosting was looking remarkably soupy, but I decided to see it through to the end and then let it chill and success was mine! (Here's to levelheadedness in the kitchen.)

I piped the frosting on with a star tip.

We washed it down with a bottle of champagne, naturally. Happy Birthday to the remarkable man I married. I always enjoy getting a year older with you, Eric.