A lovely Birthday Celebration

Friday was my birthday and thanks to my dear friends I had a wonderful day. Kristina hosted it at her apartment She and Areta cooked a delicious dinner with homemade berry tartes and vanilla ice cream for dessert! I was surrounded by my dearest friends (and Bingo of course), I got this lovely book of 1960's illustrations, a bright red replica of a WWII first aid kit which will look beautiful in my pistachio colored kitchen, and a fantastic book of demented children's stories illustrated by Edward Gorey. All in all a perfect birthday!

Red Velvet Cake

It was my friend Kristina's birthday on Friday and I wanted to make her favorite cake for the occasion. Now being italian-american Red Velvet Cake was not in my recipe box of traditional cakes so this was an adventure for me. I ended up using Martha Stewart's recipe from her website as I figured I could trust her.

It is an unusual recipe and I admit to being skeptical when it called for mixing baking soda with vinegar  not to mention all that red food coloring!

But in the end it was so light and delicious, was great fun to make and got me into the holiday spirit of baking!

Did I mention how yummy the cream cheese icing was??