Sharing on your birthday...

This morning K woke up and was officially a TEENAGER!  Woohoo!!  To celebrate we had lots of shopping planned, a lunch at Chipotle and a big family dinner to cap off the day.

However, there was one other stop planned for today.   K has had her hair cut only a few times and each time she has donated to Locks of Love.   Today was the day for another donation.   I think she was more than ready to shed the locks....and to be able to help others was the icing on the cake.

          Here's a shot of Kristin this morning before we headed out for the day.   

                              

Quite a difference, isn't it?

Back view

New outfit, too!

Happy Birthday, Kristin!!

Constructing a special birthday cake....

So, K will be turning 13 on Tuesday!  I am not even going to get into my thoughts on that one.  No, I'll save that for another post.   Today's focus will be on the all important birthday cake.  

Every year K likes to design her cake and I do my best to make it happen.  This year has the added element of being her 13th birthday, which begs for an extra special cake.   A few months ago K started thinking about cake.  One thing you should know is that we are very different in this area.   K likes to think months ahead and I like to take it one week at a time.  Sometimes it bites me in the rear, but it's how I handle life.  Anyway, K brings it up in February and I did my best to just shut it down.   I told her I would make a yummy cake for her and she would like it! 

Fast forward to this last Monday.  Yikes, it's time to start planning that cake!   

Hmmm, what to make?

I know K saw a picture of a cake months ago that had many layers and was tall.  She definitely thought that was drool worthy, so I stored that in my file cabinet that I keep tucked in the corner of my brain. (your brain has corners, right?)  However, that wasn't enough information to construct an extra special cake!  I needed more.  Thankfully, inspiration was soon to smack me upside the head.  We were at the grocery store and once again she was drooling over Reese's Peanut Butter cups.  She even went as far as to say that I could buy them as a birthday gift to her.  BINGO!!

This year's cake idea was born!

I made three layers of chocolate fudge cake. (I actually made 4 layers, but I froze one for another dessert for another day)  I sliced each layer in half and put fluffy peanut butter frosting between each layer.

                                   I covered all the layers with homemade chocolate frosting.                                                                            

Then I made bittersweet chocolate ganache to pour over the top.  Chopped peanut butter cups finished off the design.  It was declared a winner by the birthday girl! (and really that's what counts!!)

I still have 24 hours with a 12 year old in the house, even though she already blew out the number 13! 

I'm going to hang on to that thought!!