Last year, I started making my own birthday cake. I'll spare you the multiple reasons (I listed them in my prior post , and they haven't really changed. So this would be year two of the annual make-my-own-birthday cake post. (Two times is enough to make it a tradition, right?) Year 2 (of the tradition) and year 35 (of my life) started off with a commitment not to make the same mistake as last year. Namely, trying to bake the cake, make the frosting, make the filling, and decorate -- all the night before my birthday. It made for a slightly stressful day before the big day. So this year, I made the topper a month in advance and set it aside. The cake was baked a couple weeks in later, filled, frosted, and frozen. A couple days before my birthday, I defrosted the cake in the fridge, bringing it to rest at room temperature the night before. And finally, I decorated the cake on the day of my birthday. Now this is definitely the way to do it. So the cake of the
