I made myself a birthday cake

My first birthday during COVID... While my other 40th celebrations in 2020 like Dapper Day at Disneyland and Hawaii trips were canceled due to COVID, I was still able to celebrate my birthday in February last year with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ON my birthday, with tickets that I purchased in March of 2019, the year before!!

This year, I was feeling a bit down, but am grateful for all the reminders of how blessed I am. My parents and I went to Barney's Hamburgers, where they had outdoor dining, and I was able to enjoy some fresh curly fries (delivered and reheated fries just aren't the same) and their Turkish coffee milkshake. I got my nails done, and went to Starbucks and got myself a birthday cake pop. My boss came over and dropped off a tropical plant, some tiki torches, and an amazon gift card as a starter for my plan to transform my backyard into a little slice of Hawaii here in CA. My boyfriend also got me a whole plate of Baby Yoda themed chocolate covered strawberries and a chocolate box! (sorry, Grogu, his full name)

I also received some very thoughtful, empowering, and fun birthday cards. One of the cards that I received had a cake on it, and so of course, I had to make the cake. Thank you Wenonah, for getting me baking again! 😊🎂

The next question I know I will get is: "Is the inside the same colors too?" And the answer is yes... but no. I added the food coloring for the yellow and teal layers (they came out beautifully!) and used beetroot powder to get the pink color but unfortunately, the color completely baked out.

THE. CAKE. IS. HUGE. I had to stretch my arms so far in front of me to take that selfie! 6" round on top of an 8" round - and I only made one recipe of buttercream, so everything was super lightly frosted, which make the cake:icing ratio perfect for my taste - it is MY birthday cake after all!

I gave the top tier to my godson (and birthday twinsie who celebrated his 2nd birthday), and took the big tier to my sisters' house for the family birthday gathering. I'm sure my brother in law hates me for bringing so much sugar to the kids, but that's what YiMa's are for!

When you run out of candles, you use the next closest thing on hand: