Happy Birthday, Michael!

Michael's birthday was Friday. We've been celebrating since last Monday. It all began with a birthday dinner with my parents. They left Thursday afternoon to go to Colorado, thus the early birthday dinner (Tuesdays and Wednesdays are too busy). From them Michael received a really nice Kenneth Cole watch and a $100 gift check. Friday, on the actual birthday, Michael and I enjoyed a nice dinner at Dockside. On Saturday afternoon we were in Spokane for a couple of things, so we decided to have dinner at P.F. Chang's. We like P.F. Chang's, but don't eat there often, so, since it was Michael's birthday weekend we had to take advantage of the opportunity! The final celebretory dinner was last night with Michael's parents at their house. We had steak, scallops, roasted veggies, and salad followed by an ice cream cake. That I made. Here it is in all its glory:


This cake is pretty simple to make. Here is the recipe. It's basically just layering. Not much in the way of cooking goes into this (unless you count melting chocolate and butter on the stove top...that's it. Really. And you could do that in the microwave if you wanted.) There are five layers to this cake from bottom to top: oreo cookie crust, chocolate, ice cream, caramel, and whipped cream with oreo cookie crumbs sprinkled on top. The only time consuming part is waiting for certain layers to set in the freezer, so if you plan to make it, be sure you start well in advance. (I did the first three layers Saturday night and finished it Sunday morning.) I modified the recipe slightly in that I halved it. I decided a 9x13 pan of this would be waaay too much for the four of us. And I'm glad I did. A little goes a long way in terms of flavor and satisfaction. We cut the 9x9 pan into 9 squares (which aren't huge) and my father-in-law was the only one that had more than one (and he only had and extra 1/2 piece). So, we still have half the pan left and it's in my freezer. It's really good, so I don't think it'll last long. I think this may become the new official birthday cake in Michael's family (I'll stick with my traditional chocolate buttermilk sheetcake...I love it too much to give it up). For Donna's birthday next month I might try to make it even smaller and use one of my mini loaf pans...no leftovers to tempt us then.

And I will leave you with a side view of my piece to show all the layers (sorry about the bad photo...iPhone camera isn't the greatest):