Happy Birthday and Hummingbird Shortcake

It was not my plan to have hummingbird shortcake.  I had envisioned a beautiful 2 layer cake with a traditional cream cheese butter type frosting..oozing with goodness!  A funny thing happened in my "test" kitchen.  Again, I am a creative cook, not a baker.  There are reasons for this.  I love sweets, but in my altitude I haven't had much luck in baking or the fortitude to keep on trying.  After all, I can't eat all these "mistakes".

I live at approximately 6000 ft. so it is a real challenge to get it right.  I either forget to add extra flour, reduce the sugar, increase the liquid and/or increase the oven temperature!  Whew, too much.  Sometimes there is an occasional success, mostly with crumbles, crisps, pies, etc.  But I can't let a good challenge rest. 

The recipe I tried came from a fellow blogger.  After I had made it, I stumbled upon another gal's blog at www.bakingbites.com   I recommend her recipe for hummingbird cake.  Hers looks great!  Hummingbird cake supposedly originated in the South.  It has tropical ingredients plus pecans!  Yum..

Maybe it was just divine intervention for my "birthday" cake to end up the way it did.  One layer turned out beautifully, while the other was a flop, but salvageable.  I made lemonade shortcake out of the scraps!  This just happens to be my dad's (birthday boy) favorite dessert.  Funny how things work out!  In my kitchen I improvise and revise.  This cake is worth the effort...I will try again!



Bad cake



Great "save" shortcake

Good cake

Better Birthday Cake

Happy 82th birthday dad.  Your cake is on the way!  Here's more pictures to celebrate his big day!

Somewhere in Austria

Eating his way through Europe

Another birthday circa 1977