Happy Dragon Day

This year we got to spend Christmas with my family. The day after Christmas, we drove down to John's mother's house to spend a few days with his family. Since we were at John's mom's house on the 28th, we were able to see his sister Dragon for her birthday. This year, we decided that we wanted to make dinner and birthday cake for her. This can be quite a task since there were about 25 people for dinner! During dinner the previous night (when there were only 15 people), we decided that we would have chili, cornbread and salad. We then decided to go grocery shopping because it was supposed to be quite snowy on the day of her birthday.

After dinner, John's mom, one of his sisters and myself went out to the grocery store. We had the menu for dinner and ideas about cake, but we didn't really know what ingredients we needed for the cake or what ingredients his mom had at home for either the chili or the cake. Therefore, we wandered up and down the aisles and got everything we thought we might need for the next day. On her birthday, I was glad that we went to the grocery store when we did, because it was quite snowy but pretty.

About two in the afternoon, I started making chili (people were supposed to come about 6:00). By this time John had looked up recipes online for the cake had chosen one to make. It was a raspberry chocolate cake. It was supposed to have white chocolate filling, but we didn't have any white chocolate so we just used milk chocolate instead. So while I worked on the chili, John worked on the cake and made the cornbread.

Since we had so many people, we had to double the cake recipe. While this didn't seem like a problem to begin with, when it came time to assemble the cake, it was quite interesting. When we took the first layer out of the pan, it came out alright. However when it came time to take the second layer out of its pan, it just wanted to crumble. While this may not have been a problem if the cake had actual frosting, because it didn't, it made putting the top layer on difficult. We tried a few different things, and ended up just piecing it together. However, because the cake had to chill and the chocolate set, it turned out pretty well. But most importantly, Dragon said that it was the best best birthday cake that she has ever had. All of the guests said it was tasty as well. And if I do say so myself, it was delicious. Chocolate and raspberry go very well together.

Most importantly, I think everyone had fun. It was another good food, interesting conversation, family gathering. Note, unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of Dragon!