Happy Birthday Mike!!!

Mike's Red Velvet Birthday Cake 

(scroll to bottom for recipe and substitutions)

Happy Birthday to my first big brother! Mike has been around since I was...12?? He could probably tell a lot of embarrassing stories about me from those fabulous awkward years (which I now get to witness in my students daily and I finally understand how weird I truly was in school).

Mike and I share a few interests:

1) The Harry Potter book and movie series- I distinctly remember him waiting for hours in line before the first movie came out and watching him knock over children and old women alike to get the best seats- for me of course because it was my 14th birthday.

2) History- We are both history teachers and I've called and pestered him for his sage advice a number of times. I also use many of his materials in my classroom- he'll always be at least 5 years more knowledgeable than I will be.

3) Life. Mike is an old man at heart and is already at the stage of development where he likes to give advice to younger generations. I've secretly always liked this. It's nice to hear from someone who was adopted (and when I say adopted I mean that figuratively, my sister did NOT marry our adoptive brother) into our family from the outside but has been around long enough to really see how things work.

4) Cake...Mike likes cake. Mike specifically likes this red velvet cake- at least I think he does. He always says he does. Mike if you've been lying to me for years, I'm sorry!!!

Here is Mike's red velvet birthday cake with cream cheese frosting....it also happens to be 100% gluten and dairy free (except for the cream cheese frosting). SURPRISE to all of the people who just unknowingly ate it!!

Happy 32nd Birthday!!!

Blood Red- nothing like 2 bottles of food coloring to make you hungry!!

Frosting. Pre-decorations

I would like to point out that there are no in-between shots of the plain baked cake. That is because my wonderful boyfriend thought it would be a great idea to take a bite right out of the side of the cake.....I was too mad at him to document...Sorry Mike!!

This looks like cat food BUT it's not! This is the tiny cake that I made for my niece who cannot have the cream cheese frosting.

 

This isn't a great picture, but I really love it. 

Happy Birthday to the big brother I never even asked for!

To Make This Cake:

Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cake Recipe- HERE

Substitutions:
- Cake flour with Cup4Cup all purpose flour from William Sonoma.
- Butter with Margarine...my favorite are Vegan Sticks Buttery Spread
- Butter Milk with soy milk that has a couple drops of lemon juice in it. I put about 1/2 tsp for 1 cup...the lemon causes the milk to curdle- even soy milk! It's actually kind of neat!