Happy Birthday to me! (part deux)

For my birthday, Mike baked me a cake. If you recall, last year I requested a pretty complicated cake. Mike took it on and did a stellar job, but it wasn't that great. It wasn't his fault. He didn't do anything wrong. The recipe just wasn't that great. He executed flawlessly, but we were left wanting.  As a result, this year I went for something more typical. It was still a scratch cake, but it was just an ordinary cake with buttercream frosting. Let me just say . . . Oh. My. Word. It was spectacular! The buttercream? Was like eating a stick of butter. Dipped in powdered sugar. Only better. I'm salivating right now just remembering how amazing it was. Combine that with the fact that I also had one dozen drop-dead-good cupcakes and I was in birthday heaven! Here are some pictures. Oh, and imagine my kids excitement when they found a #4 candle AND a #1 candle. I wasn't able to convince them I was turning 14. Drat. Really I'm only 29 though. But you knew that. Right?