33 not to be confused with 52

Oldest Dearest Friends.
My oldest friend, in years, not in age - although he is older than me turned 33 last week.  Now Sether's birthday is always a momentous occasion, but this year was particularly special.  I have to admit that I didn't know why until I got the call on the bat phone.

RING!  RING!

AM: Hello?
AP:  Alissson?
AM:  Hi Andrea!  I was just about to call you to find out what you had in mind for Sether's birthday party.
AP:  Well you know three is Seth's favorite number.  So I was thinking that maybe you could make something with three's.
AM: Silence. Ah, okay...  How about a bunch of brightly colored cupcakes in the shape of two 3's?
AP: Yeah... I was thinking something more like a cake with 3's on it, or like in the shape of 3's, but if you can't, cupcakes would be great.
AM: ...  ...  ... clickity, clackity, search, search, search
AP:  Are you on-line?
AM: Yep, found it!  Done and done.  See you Sunday.  Call me if you need anything. BYE!
AP Ciao! Ciao!

For the record, I have been friends with Sethers for 22 years and I NEVER knew that 3 was his favorite number.  Apparently, he feels it is his magic number and therefore 33 is going to be a super special fantasmagorial magical year.

Well, how could I refuse such a challenge?  A birthday cake in the shape of 33.  All I had to do was find a template and let the games begin.

Now I am certain I mentioned that I have been rehearsing for a new play.  Normally I have time in between things to have a quick baking session, but not lately.  I had to make time to actually bake and construct this cake.  I decided that I was going to do vegan chocolate cake with vegan chocolate butter cream frosting, because Seth LOVES chocolate, and then a white cake with vegan chocolate buttercream because I wanted the three's to match.

I also wanted the three's to be big. There were going to be at least 15 people at the birthday brunch.  In order to make them the proper size I needed to bake sheet cakes. One problem:  I only have one sheet cake pan.  Which meant that I had to bake a cake, put it in the freezer to cool, then figure out what to put the cake on to construct the three's.  I was freaking out a bit until I realized that many moons ago I made an American Flag cupcake cake for my father's retirement party.  He retired at 56 with 36 years of government service under his belt and he served in the Army. Pretty awesome. I will  have try and find a picture of that cake.  I even made white chocolate stars to top the cupcakes in the blue section.  No joke.

The amazing vegan chocolate cake coming out of the oven - recipe available upon request

Anyway, I digress.  I remembered that my mother bought giant sheet cake boards for the American Flag and she gave the rest to me.  They made it through a move and 5 years of baking without being used until this fateful evening.  I took one out and lo and behold it was PERFECT.  The cake gods were smiling on me.

First cake in and out, and into the freezer to cool.  While that sucker was cooling I made the next batch of vegan chocolate cake.  Come on COOL dammit!  The last thing I wanted was for the cake to come out of the pan too hot and break.  That would have been a TOTAL disaster.  So then I started making the buttercream because I didn't want the cake batter to sit for too long.

The cake in my freezer cooling.  And if you look closely you will see that I have buttercream, French macarons, and 4 freezer bags filled with baked goods.  Yeah...

When the first cake was officially cooled, I carefully put it on the cake board with parchment underneath it thinking this is a good move so I can get some mobility and move the cake or make adjustments as needed.  Then I had to think about how to frost the cake.  I had limited frosting and I needed to make sure I was getting maximum results. So I cut out the 3, placed it on the cake and then piped the three onto the lower layer.  When the second layer was ready, I carefully and breathlessly placed the cake on top of the lower layer.  I then placed the three template on the cake and prayed that I didn't break the cake.  I have never carved cake before so I was super nervoso.

Outlined cake

The carving of the cake

With a nervous grin I hacked into the puppy taking large chunks of GORGEOUS looking cake off.  Looking pretty good!

Post carving and pre-frosting.

The remnants.  Don't you wish you were at my house that night?  Yummers!
 Now onto the white cake!

Perfection!

While I was waiting for the white cake to cook I attempted to move the chocolate cake a little.  MISTAKE.  CRATER GATOR!  Crapola.  Lucky for me I was able to ever so slowly move it over and then push it together and use some of the frosting to cement it together, but let me tell you I almost had a heart attack of epic proportions.


Then the freakin' white cake decided it didn't ever want to come out of the cake and cracked on the way out of the pan.  WHAT?  Why? Why? - read as exaggerated weeping.

Look carefully on the left hand side and you can see the fracture.
Lucky for me the cake gods were truly watching over me because it ended up that where the cake cracked was cut off the cake in the carving process.  Phew, phew, and phew.

The first layer with a slight crack.  Hoping my carving skills with get rid of the problem.
So I got to frosting the cake.  It isn't easy when both cakes are side by side, weigh a ton, and I don't have a revolving cake stand to get the nooks and crannies.  But slowly and surely I got the 3's frosted.
The frosting process.


The cake remnants.  I know you are really wishing you were at my house that night.  Have no fear!  I froze the left overs and plan to make a trifle for a dinner party coming up soon.
Now there was just the issue of moving it into the refrigerator for the night.  Now I know what those contestants feel like on extreme cake challenge when they have to move their cake from the work table to the presentation table!   I made room in my fridge and held my breath as I placed it inside for the first time. As I stood there I thought and actually said aloud, "FLOWERS!  It need giant white daisies. That will complete the look."

Sitting pretty in the fridge waiting for something to make it look even more amazing.


Exhausted, I retired to face the 33 the following morning.  And when I did, I realized that the flowers weren't going to be enough.  So I started to think about what else I could do to the cake to make it look really finished and that is when I had the thought: chocolate chips!  Chocolate chips will make this right.  So one by one I placed them on each cake.

Post Chocolate Chip placement and pre flower beautification.
Meanwhile, I put out a call to my friend Brent to find a banana box for transit and to come and get me on his way because I would not be able to pack up the cake, wrap it, open the door, and get in and out of a cab without help.  Being that he didn't even know what a banana box was I went out scouting for one - ended up with a blackberry box instead - and flowers.  Daisies, oh daises, where are you?  It was June the perfect time for daisies - my favorite flower (ahem, please take note) - and yet, they were no where to be found.  My vision was being foiled.  Until I saw these bright magenta daisy/mum hybrid flowers and I thought done, and done.

Brent got to my house, we wrapped the cake, and off we went to the party where I spent the first 30 minutes happily dealing with the flowers and all that.  Cause if you know Sethers you know he LOVES his flowers. We joke that his house is like a funeral home.

Finally it was the moment of truth.  Andrea pulled the cake out of the box, we placed votives around the cake,  and as we were lighting the candles the three with the crack started to crack a bit more!  So we figured out if I squeezed it you wouldn't notice it. 
The cake being squeezed together with all my might with the gorgeous flowers and candles awaiting the unveiling.
Sheepishly walking in singing happy birthday to my best friend.
Seth was so delighted and surprised.  Grateful and honored, but honestly I was honored to be asked to make something so special for him.

Seth so surprised and delighted.


The cake and the cake maker.
Everyone was talking about the cake and freaking out about how good the chocolate cake was so I couldn't resist telling them all it was vegan.  They freaked.  They absolutely could not believe it.  Seth said he thought that these cakes were the best looking and tasting that I have ever made.  Quite high praise indeed.

Gorgeous even with the crack and all.


Cutting the gorgeous and delicious cake.
Yes, we did call each other to coordinate out outfits, plates, and cutlery.
Yummers.
A wonderful birthday a wonderful day for a wonderful friend.

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