Easter Dinner

It was a lovely Easter dinner.  Not a perfect day, what with the bickering and the tears, and what with the boys being "too old" for an egg hunt, but a lovely visit and dinner with terrific company.   I guess this is my first "second", holidaywise anyway.  Last year was the year of  firsts:  "first Easter without Tom," first Mother's Day, Father's Day,  birthday, Christmas ... I expected the "seconds" series to be easier, but it's not.  Not really.   His seat is still empty at the table, unless I sit in it, which I do, because certainly no one else ever will.

We were on Long Island last weekend with Tom's family.  We left Sunday morning, intending to stop at my Mom's house so 96 could help with some chores for a school  service project, and to celebrate my brother and sister's birthday, which was that day. (How cool is it that my brother was born at 4:17 a.m. on 4/17? Pretty cool.)   We stopped at a terrific little bakery in North Bellmore near Madeline's house, A Taste of Home and picked up a raspberry swirl cheesecake for Jack (my sister Jeanne lives in Texas, and had to settle for my annual invisible birthday card).

I was intrigued by the wheat pie, which I learned from the baker is a Neopolitan ricotta and wheatberry cheesecake in a pie crust traditionally served at Easter, so I picked one up intending to freeze it for today.

Good intentions aside, 96 was starting with the sniffles before we reached the Throgs Neck Bridge (which never looks like this when we're driving over it). I've never seen a cold come on with such ... gusto. By the time we hit the Charter Oak Bridge it was clear we simply weren't going to make it to Grandmothers house, so we headed home and froze both beauties for today, and Jack would have to wait a week for his birthday treat.  Poor 96 spent almost the whole school vacation sick as a dog.


By week's end I decided to bake a cake for Jack's birthday for Sunday, too. This cake. Nothing special about this cake. 

I've been wanting to bake this cake for a while. What's so special about this ordinary-looking cake, you might ask ... Well, I might answer ... it's just that this is ...

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The. Coolest. Cake. Ever.