Blueberries for Billy the Birthday Boy!

My parents decided that they wanted to celebrate my Dad's birthday at home this year. I love big birthday parties at home because everyone is comfortable and can take their time to enjoy the meal - and in one way or another Henry is bound to make some sort of performance during the evening!









In all honesty, there are times as a baker that I definitely make shortcuts - such as using boxed cake mix and frosting - but I try to never do this when I'm making a cake/cupcakes for someone's birthday. For this cake - I wanted to go BIG and try some stuff I hadn't taken on all at once before. I decided I wanted to work with one of the most delicious fruits of the season blueberries! and pair them with some mouth watering lemon curd and vanilla frosting.

I baked the cake and make the lemon curd the night before my Dad's bday dinner. I baked the cake in a 13x9 inch pan, which I later split into two layers - resulting in a sort of rectangular shaped cake.

Preparing lemon curd is an arduous process - but it's SO worth it in the end! I used Alton Brown's recipe for lemon curd - and it proved to be fantastic. Whipping up a batch of lemon curd also serves as a great way to work your biceps - who knew! Here is a link to the recipe I used:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/lemon-curd-recipe/index.html


















After spreading the glistening (and did I mention mouth watering!) lemon curd on top of one of the halves, which would serve as the layer in the middle of the cake, I drizzled the cake with blueberries.

*side note - I often refer to the food items of which I cannot seem to get enough as CRACK. My cracks of the moment include sugar free Cherry Lime punch from Target, Snyders hard pretzels, rice cakes, diet coke made with Splenda, and of course, sour candy. Lemon curd is most definitely a form of crack whenever I've got some in the house, and I've often found myself sneaking back to my fridge for a healthy spoonful as if it were yogurt - it's hard to describe the sensation that takes over my body when I taste lemon curd. It's like this cool, refreshing wave runs through your body - it awakens your senses, cleanses your palette, and titillates every single taste bud in your mouth.

LOVE me some lemon curd!!












I then tackled the frosting. After perusing several frosting recipes, I decided to try this one on my own. Therefore I combined shortening, vanilla, powdered sugar, heavy cream and blue food coloring to make this bowl of sugary goodness:












*Next time I think I will use butter instead of shortening, as the dairy component of the butter lends to so much more flavor.















And the final product was this!

















In the end, I was pleased with the final result. The lemon curd and blueberries served as the perfect Summer duo and light way to end the meal.













Happy Birthday to my favorite Doddie! You are the most selfless, affable, and generous man I know - and I'm very proud to have you as my father!

llkw