Sunday, September 11, 2011

Parental Birthdays!

it's been a birthday frenzy lately. my pops turned 50 in august and we threw him an awesome-sauce surprise party at the house. complete with all his favorite foods - indian street foods, mostly. and of course, nc state ice cream (go pack!). but, ma insisted we have a cake to cut too - so, sheila and i whipped up something reallllllly fast. its our "strawberry banana torte," with pre-baked layers that were assembled in a whopping 5 minutes before the cake cutting (you can kinda tell... we were a little sloppy). it's super easy to make, though! here's the down 'n dirty how-to:

mix up a box of cake mix with all the necessary ingredients, but add in 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas. bake in three round pans for 3 layers. you may consider 2 boxes of cake mix to make thicker layers than mine! for the filling, mix 2 tbsp honey with thawed cool whip. spread the mixture on each cooled layer of cake, topping with sliced strawberries that have been patted dry. stick it on a cake stand, hastily take a photo, and step back before you're attacked by all the kids oogling the cake with their hungry eyes! 



on another note...

yesterday was ma's birthday! she's a year younger that my dad, hitting the big 4-9 yesterday :) i had a rushed day since i was in a wedding for an awesome couple (another post on that later!), but sheila helped me in the kitchen to make a birthday brunch. we channeled the post punk kitchen and made tofu omelets. then, for something sweet, we made these awesome vegan orange-berry muffins - but with blueberries instead of cranberries! they were delicious. a little crumbly, but it all ends up your mouth anyway so who cares :) the best part, is this awesome picture we took:

it was taken using the new canon t3i that we bought dad for his birthday (full circle!). it is SO much nicer for staging food pics - with the point and shoot, i have to hold my camera right next to the thing i want to focus on, to get that awesome fuzzy background effect. but with the big daddy canon, i can do whatever i want. thoughts on the photo?!

love baking for the family - hope they love it too :) happy birthday to my folks! 


1 comment:

  1. Have you thought about quitting med school and becoming a food photographer? Get to work for magazines and recipe books and the Food Network. Photos look awesome! --kala

    ReplyDelete

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