A happy birthday party

Just a little post to share some fun from Lake's birthday party.



The grandparents were here and Lake's best buddy, Juniper, and her mom and dad as well.









These two are quite the pair, generally the sweetest of duos.  She's just 5 weeks older.  They shared the typewriter box booster at the table during dinner.  Too cute!



At one point Lake and Juni left the table, just the two, and were found together in the living room playing to their heart's content, singing and happy as could be.  What more could anyone ask for?!



This was my favorite version of Lake's cake to date.  (The one we had the day after he was born was too sweet/white-cake-y for me, and maybe the lemon curd was too much?  And I can't remember what I didn't love about the cake for his first birthday, but it wasn't The One either.)

This year I used an Almond Cake recipe from David Lebovitz.  It was new to me, but exactly what I was looking for.  I made it gluten-free with this mix instead of regular flour, and added 1/4+ teaspoon of xanthum gum to the dry ingredients.  The cake was quite sweet, so I think I'd cut the sugar at least in half next time around.  But the overall flavor and density were really great.  I love almond/marzipan in baking.  Topped the whole thing with a pint and a half of raspberries just-picked from the backyard and a cloud of whipped cream on top... delicious!*  The candied lemon slices were second fiddle to the cake for sure, and not necessarily something I'd repeat.  But they looked cool, all glassy, though, again, too sweet for me.

* This was the inspiration for the rustic styling of Lake's cake.  I have yet to make one, but it sounds delicious to me.