Happy Birthday to Maude

Yesterday, Maude turned 8. She was only 2 — and the youngest — when we moved to New York and it is amazing to see her so grown-up and taking the role of second mom to her younger siblings.

Because events that occur early in the month tend to sneak up on me, I've scheduled Maude's birthday party festivites to happen in a couple of weeks. So yesterday we just celebrated as a family.

Birthdays at our house start with breakfast in bed. Maude picked the menu: scrambled eggs, sausage, waffles, strawberries with whip cream and milk. In the evening, we had her favorite dinner and then put candles in strawberry shortcake and opened presents. Maude was delighted with her day — the highlight seemed to be the yoga mat she received. In fact, it is 6:15 am and she is upstairs now offering a kids yoga class to her brothers and sisters.

My Husband's favorite part was the strawberry shortcake. It was yummy. I used my friend Heidi's idea: make a regular white cake mix, but add a cup of sourcream before your blend it up, then bake small individual cakes in pretty shapes. When the cakes are done, Heidi adds a thin milk/powdered sugar/vanilla/butter glaze. Each guest receives their own little cake and she serves berries and fresh whip cream on the side. The cakes were really pretty.

I'd been wanting to make these little cakes for awhile and finally picked up a cute pan at Target. My pan isn't any of the ones featured. It's by Wilton and it's available in Target's Easter display. It's a pan with 6 cakes in 3 different flower patterns. I couldn't find a picture or source of mine online, but there are lots of other cute mini-cake pans available.