Let's celebrate!
Do you celebrate Birthday Month too? + a cake for any time celebration
It’s Birthday Month! Let’s celebrate with peonies and garlic scapes and strawberries.
Let’s celebrate with cake for breakfast and two-cake outings and pie dates and brownie-strawberry ice cream sandwiches. But not all in one day.
Let’s celebrate with sangria and snacks for dinner.
Let’s celebrate with a free sundae and bookstore outings.
Let’s celebrate with porch time and deck time and garden time.
Let’s celebrate with as many friends possible, on as many days as possible.
Let’s celebrate by slowing down and noticing the everyday changes, the throughout the day changes, what’s blooming, what’s on the verge. The now and the anticipation.
Let’s celebrate with creativity and joy.
Let’s celebrate who I’ve been, who I am, who I am becoming.
The celebration has begun. Let’s keep it going … all month, all summer, all year … is that too much? There is so much to embrace and enjoy. Let’s celebrate and keep going.
I love having a birthday in June when the strawberries and scapes are ready, when peonies bloom and breakfast at the picnic table feels right.
I love having a birthday in June, close to the solstice, close to the mid-year mark. I like to reflect, take stock, and this point about half-way between new year and year end feels like and appropriate time. It’s a time to dream and plan and imagine with summer energy.
I love having a birthday in June, but it is a busy time of year, and while I loved doing field day and field trips with my kids, sometimes that was not what I wanted to do for my birthday. Too many years of that, and I decided to claim another day, then a week. Then why not the whole month?
I love the extended celebration because it makes space for events out of my control. It lets me do the outdoor things I crave, even if the weather does not cooperate. It lets me celebrate with more people.
When I turned 40, I decided I wanted 40 celebrations. Some were cakes or dinners or toasts or coffee dates close to my birthday, but many were catching up with a friend in July or November … whenever our far flung paths crossed. I don’t always try to count up the celebrations, mark every meeting with my birthday, but I do count a variety of gatherings clustered around the actual day of my birth as celebrations. I do seek out get togethers with friends.
I love sending letters. I love birthdays. Yet somehow, I am not good at birthday cards. My messages often reach people late, and I always say, “Happy belated birthday — keep celebrating” or encourage the friend receiving my late note to use it as an excuse to celebrate again.
Because why not?
Why not celebrate yourself, this one wild and precious life you’re given?
One of our traditions is cake for breakfast on your birthday. I’m choosing flourless chocolate cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream this year.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Preheat oven to 375 F and grease an 9-inch round cake pan. Line the pan bottom with a round of parchment paper and butter paper. (Don’t skip the parchment.)
Chop the chocolate into small pieces. In a double boiler, melt chocolate with butter over barely boiling water, stirring until smooth.
Remove top of double boiler from heat and whisk sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs and whisk well. Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk (slowly so it doesn’t poof out all over the place) until just combined. (Honestly, I never sift, but you could.)
Pour the batter into the pan and bake in middle of oven for 25 minutes, or until top has formed a thin crust. Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes before removing from that pan.
Serve for breakfast on your birthday or any time the rest of the year. Delicious plain, with ice cream, barely sweetened whipped cream, raspberries, or if your birthday in in strawberry season, strawberries.
Need an excuse to celebrate today? It’s almost my birthday — have some cake, raise a toast, enjoy!
What are you celebrating?