Happy Half-Birthday to You

We've made a habit of baking a mid-winter cake to celebrate our kids' half-birthdays. Since both of their birthdays are in August, it provides a good excuse to enjoy some cake at an otherwise slow celebration season at our house.

Our son wanted a blue cake. Our daughter wanted a princess cake. Since my only requirement was that this be a low-key affair, I used blue frosting with colorful sprinkles on top and considered it a fabulous job of meeting both requests. We used some half-used "Happy Birthday" candles, only using the "Happy" portion--it was only a half-birthday celebration after all.

I started making the cake around 9 at night on Saturday and chose the recipe based on the ingredients I had on hand. Naturally, I discovered too far into it that I was missing cocoa powder. I called a neighbor and got some. The next day, another neighbor called us to borrow some cocoa powder and my husband gave them the can that I had borrowed the previous day. 'Tis the season, apparently.

The cake came out great. My daughter's only question: "Uh, Mom...Aren't we missing something?" She looked at me with an inquiring face. I said, "You mean presents? It's a half-birthday. You have to make it a whole year to get the presents!"