When I asked my cousin Michele what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, she said “oh, I don’t know, either something with canoli cream in it, or that rose cake that you make.”  So, in the weeks leading up to the big event, I spent a lot of time thinking about cake.  

As part of my gift to her, we hosted about 15 people at my house yesterday to celebrate Michele’s birthday.  We declared it a Pot-Luck party, with my primary responsibility focused on dessert.  With so many people attending, I decided to make a variety of desserts.

I served long-stemmed strawberries with homemade whipped cream (sorry, they were gone before I could take the picture).  I made mini lemon and lime tarts topped with fresh raspberries and blackberries.





For her first birthday cake, I created a rose pound cake that I split and filled with Nutella.  I iced the cake with homemade whipped cream.




My Pièce de résistance began as a Devil’s food cake that I doused in Amaretto liquor.  I made canola cream and added chopped semi-sweet chocolate to it.  I filled the cake with the canola cream and iced it with a chocolate ganache (very messy process, if I do say so!)






I topped both cakes with edible wildflowers and served them to a very happy birthday girl.