Happy Birthday, Shiral!

[DesertRose]

Happy birthday, Shiral!

[DoctorM]

Happy Birthday!

[Nezz]

Happy belated birthday, Shiral! Here, have a boar's head cake!

https://cdn001.cakecentral.com/gallery/2015/03/900_791268kZij_boars-head-cake.jpg

[Shiral]

Thank you everyone! Considering that I was extraordinarily limited in what I could do and where I could go on Friday, I actually did have a nice birthday this year. Since my mother has had her two doses of the vaccine, and I am in good health, we had a masked and socially distanced visit in my living room when she brought over my birthday presents. (Cute slippers, and a new set of bedsheets and a nice big pillow that Dmitri has now taken possession of.) In return, I gave her her long-delayed Christmas presient. (I ordered it on time, but it didn't get shipped until late December and got snarled up in the mail for several weeks until it finally arrived.)

After she went home, I did some painting, then got a Chinese take out dinner from my favorite local Chinese restaurant, and watched Moonstruck. Then enjoyed the birthday cake I baked.
Melissa

[Evie]

Happy Birthday, Shiral!  Give us a few minutes, I think the catering dude's just putting the final touches on your birthday cake.

[DerynifanK]

Happy birthday Shiral. Hope you have a fabulous day to match your fabulous cake (which you definitely deserve). Hoping there are more stories to come about the relationship of Alaric and Brion. You are an amazing writer.

[DoctorM]

Happy Birthday!

I hope it's a great day!

And I hope you'll write more stories here in the new year!

[Jerusha]

Happy birthday, Shiral!  That is some cake!  Hope you have a wonderful day.

[Laurna]

A very Happy Birthday, Shiral!
That is quiet a wee castle that he be building there. Would love to see that in person.  Where is the Portal.
Have a Happy Day!

[DesertRose]

Happy birthday, Shiral!

Glad that cake is so big, because we've got quite a party going here. 

[Shiral]

Happy Birthday, Shiral!  Give us a few minutes, I think the catering dude's just putting the final touches on your birthday cake.

Evie, How did you know I love Duff Goldman/Charm City Cakes?    Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone. It was a pretty good birthday. My mother, brother and sister and I had a cracked crab lunch at my house, I opened some nice gifts and then we took a walk around my neighborhood. After our walk, we ate the birthday cake I made last night. It's a sponge cake recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking that I've made several times before, just not terribly recently. This time around, I didn't keep enough volume in the egg whites, and the cake was in the oven for about 5 minutes longer than it really needed. We agreed I wouldn't get the famed Paul Hollywood handshake for it, but I thought it was pretty good, nonetheless.

And part of me was thinking "I baked my own birthday cake and now you're critiquing it?" Sooner or later, having a family of British Baking Competition fans can circle around and bite you in the posterior when you least expect it.  Anyway, still a pretty good birthday, and the four of us polished off three cracked crabs, we had a lot of laughs, and soon I'll go watch some Winter Olympics on TV.

Melissa

[Evie]

Glad you had a good birthday!  My daughter loves Duff too, and I'm pretty certain I saw the episode when this Hogwarts cake was being built, since when she still lived at home, I think she watched every episode of every cake baking show that was on Netflix at the time. (This was when she still wanted to be a pastry chef.)

[Nezz]

Belated birthday greeting, lovely Shiral! I hope the crab and cake treated you well.

[Laurna]

Happy Birthday, Shiral!

[Jerusha]

Have a very happy birthday, Shiral!