It would seem that I am predisposed to enjoying high maintenance birthday treats. Never a connoisseur of yucky whipped Safeway cake frosting, DQ ice cream cakes, or store bought cakes with my name scrawled across the top in pink letters, I was ruined at a young age. My first birthday cake was a labour of homemade love with fresh squeezed oranges and lemons in the cake and in the sweet delicious icing. That perfect first birthday orange chiffon cake set the standard and I have never gone back.
My mom threw birthday parties on a budget like have never been thrown before. Being a summer baby, the backyard was often transformed in the month of August into whatever had been dreamed up for the big birthday event. Rolls of newsprint turned into water colour painting stations along the fence, paper across the garage door transformed into an old fashioned fishing game with prizes, water stations, sand stations, family friends dressed as hippy love clowns, and an old refrigerator box decorated, cut, and transformed into a puppet stage to name a few. These were just the beginnings of what would develop into my love a throwing a great party.
Over the years I have planned more than a few elaborate parties from a James Bond scavenger hunt that culminated at the shooting range, to a white trash birthday party that involved fake tattoos, po' boy sandwiches, and karaoke at the Rosslyn Hotel. And this year the party was a backyard drive-in movie screening of The Breakfast Club that included dressing up as the characters, Captain Crunch, ham and cheese, sushi, and pixie sticks. We endured the humid post-rain mist in the backyard as the weather did not cooperate, and enjoyed the athlete, the princess, the brain, the criminal, and the basket case just the same. With John Hughes' tragic and coincidental passing less than a week after the party, it was a fitting tribute. I "fake bobbed" my red locks, put on my biggest fake diamond studs, brown skirt, pink top, knee high boots, and fancied myself the red head heroine of my youth, Miss Molly Ringwald...aka "the princess" Claire.
With "Breakfast Club informed treats", and mandatory truffle popcorn on the menu, the only big decision left to make was the birthday confection. Despite the yawn factor of cupcakes shops on every corner, I have in years gone by established a bit of a cupcake queen reputation. My usual recipes are one of two...NYC's Magnolia Bakery's Traditional Vanilla Birthday Cake with Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting or Ina Garten's Coconut Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.
With a desire to try something new, I tracked down a highly rated recipe that covered cream cheese frosting, citrus notes, rich carrot cake, chocolate and coconut requirements. All the elements of the perfect "old man dessert" standards that I love best... Carrot Coconut Cupcakes with White Chocolate Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting!
The cakes were moist and tender, and the creamy frosting, though bordering on a glaze with my addition of a teaspoon of lemon juice and an extra cup of icing sugar, set well in the fridge and was delicious and delicate. A sugary maraschino cherry on top for the brain "Brian Johnson" who is NOT a cherry, and may or may not have motioned to Claire, was the perfect addition. After all, love is in the details.
