Red Velvet Cake with Hazelnut Buttercream

I really tried to dissuade my mom from choosing the red velvet cake with buttercream frosting for her birthday cake this year. I even tried to tempt her with the offer of a piecaken (see below), but surprisingly she even passed that up! What can I say? The red velvet and buttercream are family favorites.

But I couldn't just have an exact repeat of so many birthday cakes from years passed, so I spiced it up a bit by adding about 2 teaspoons of hazelnut oil. The hazelnut flavor was pretty strong when you ate the frosting by itself (and interestingly enough tasted like wafer cookies (which conveniently are one of her favorite types of cookies)), but once combined with the cake, the hazelnut was only a very slight accent. In the future, I will probably add about 4 teaspoons of the hazelnut oil so that it holds its own more when paired with the chocolate in the cake.

And now, the piecaken: 

I'm still trying to figure out how she could say no to this.

image via here, which I found via my fiance's gchat status...the magic of the internet

Marinated Grilled Tofu

As I mentioned here, we celebrated my mom's birthday with a big plate (or rather pan) of assorted grilled vegetables. Included was marinated grilled tofu, which was really easy to make and deliciously flavorful. We marinated the tofu with the marinade from What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway? then just grilled it on our new grill.

This whole grilling thing was a new experience for me, since I think the last time I grilled I was about 10 years old, so I didn't really know how thick to cut the tofu. I found out thicker is better, at least 1/2" because anything smaller just kind of falls apart.

Stuffed Mushrooms

So you're in luck! I'm actually writing about my mom's birthday meal before the next birthday celebration. 

My mom has been wanting a grill for some time now, so I decided to give her one for her birthday. And naturally, it was only appropriate to break it in for her birthday meal.

We had all sorts of roasted vegetables and tofu, as well as a side of oven roasted potatoes, pita bread, spinach & artichoke dip, and these stuffed mushrooms. It was quite a veggie feast.

Carrot Cake

We just celebrated my mom's birthday, which reminded me I never posted the carrot cake recipe from my sister's birthday back in January. 

Maybe if you're lucky, I'll post pictures of my mom's birthday cake and meal in August for my dad's birthday.