my peppermint vanilla birthday cake

I turned 28 last week, and for the third year in a row I spent my birthday putting together a cake with my mom. For my 26th we made a raspberry chocolate cake, and last year there was the black forest cake but this time I wanted another pink one, naturally. Behold the peppermint vanilla bean cake with meringue icing. We followed this recipe which I think is intended as a Christmas dessert, but whatever; it was just as good in July.

balloonatic birthday shoot

Along with cake, one of the best bits of my 27th birthday last month was the arrival of this giant, confetti filled, pink and gold tasseled, helium balloon from Balloonatic. Omg, right? It was such a thing of beauty to have floating around! Balloonatic & Co. is a women owned and operated business headed up by the lovely Crystal, who shares my penchant for many of the finer things in life including florals, lace, sparkles, and stationery (day planners especially!). Based in my hometown, Balloonatic do local deliveries and ship their beautiful creations all over Canada. Crystal was so kind as to let me design the balloon of my dreams for a birthday photo shoot; I dressed to match in a pink pinafore from The Whitepepper, shoes from Asos, and a beehive as tall as I could get it.

my black forest birthday cake

Confession: I really love black forest cake of the supermarket variety. It has been one of my favorites since I was a kid, but for my birthday this year I wanted something a bit more special to serve my friends after sushi dinner. Yesterday I turned 27 (yikes!) and together with my mom built a towering three layer black forest cake with heaps of whipped cream and cherries. We followed this recipe and I took the liberty of adding pink sprinkles and edible gold stars, which look like little constellations in the icing! This cake was pretty damn delicious but admittedly not as good as my pink cake from last year.