Happy Birthday!

My baby just turned one (sob!).  We had his birthday party this past weekend; we kept it small, just grandparents, auntie, uncle and cousins.  But all the same, a party means a menu and a menu means food...which in this house, brings a whole bunch of questions.

One of the things about a party that I always ask myself is, should I get organic, all-natural stuff for people who don't really care?  In the end I usually do a little organic, a little not.  I mean, it's a party...you gotta loosen up!

So for the little guy's first birthday, I made my sister's pulled pork with coleslaw, a big green salad and homemade chocolate cupcakes.  For munchies, a veggie tray and chips and dip.

To me the big thing was the cake.  For my first son's first birthday, I made him a from-scratch yellow cake.  I wanted him to have a smash cake that wasn't full of additives and food coloring.  The thing was a brick.  The poor kid couldn't even pull a piece off, let alone smash it to bits.

I have vanquished the cake!

Fast forward a couple years and I have discovered a chocolate cake that is homemade, delicious and light and fluffy.  It doesn't taste exactly like box cake, but why should it?  I've made it for several birthdays now, so I knew that my little guy would have no problem ripping into the cupcakes I made.

Here's the thing though, I got the recipe from the book, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter and she adapted the recipe from Peg Bracken's The I Hate to Cookbook.  Seeing as those are both copyrighted by someone other than me, I probably can't legally share the recipe here, but if you want it, I will be happy to give it to you...just hit me up in the comments and we can exchange recipes privately!

Yum...chocolate cake!