1.

I like cake, but then again, who doesn't? I decided to throw a cake-themed birthday party for myself (29, baby, 29). Robert is hopeless at having birthday parties. He once offered, and then the day before my birthday, confessed that he was stalled because he wanted to invite my friends. "So, who are your friends, and what are their numbers?" he asked. Since then, I've taken charge myself.

2.

Last year, I had a finger-food birthday party for me and Cori together. This year, it's cake: appetizer cake, sushi cake, cake cake, and ice cream cake was my plan, and when Jef, Debbie, and Valentina joined us the Saturday after my actual birthday, that's exactly what they received. I made the ice cream cake and appetizer cake on Thursday and kept them, but the sushi cake I assembled after a Sea to You run on Saturday morning. Robert snaps me in the middle of layer-prep at the dining room table.

3.

The table's set, and you get a good view of the appetizer cake (served with homemade matzoh, goat-cheese crackers, sliced sour wheat-olive bread, and sliced prosciutto bread). We drank water, Coke (rationale for that provided later), and a red-wine raspberry lime rickey punch I made up.

4.

Though she heretically enough had already eaten, Debbie admires the table and sips something from a glass before digging into the first two cakes.

5.

Close-up (before garnish) of the sushi cake, made in a Saran-wrap-lined souffle dish: salmon frosting, tobiko rice layer, spicy shrimp filling, wasabi tobiko rice layer, negi-avocado filling, and tamage rice layer.

6.

Close-up (garnished) of the appetizer cake, also made in a lined souffle dish: roasted bell pepper frosting, olive garnish, pine-nut-encrusted sides, herbed goat-cream cheese layers, with tapenade, artichoke heart, and sundried tomato fillings.

7.

Garnished sushi cake (it actually cut beautifully, and held together very well) with the overflow of salmon: I meant not to serve any regular sushi or sashimi, but we bought WAY too much fish just for the frosting. In honor of my birthday, Robert let me forsake diversification for the evening and concentrate on salmon only.

See sushi cake recipe here.

8.

We moved on to dessert cakes: Jef brought a jello cake, I made a Coca-cola chocolate cake with Coke in the cake and the frosting, marshmallows (organic!) in the cake, and walnuts on the top, and I made an ice cream cake served with whipped cream and raspberry sauce.

9.

Jef explains his jello cake to an impressed Valentina: he used "all the blue jello in the store," a total of the twelve packs, and oranges, cherries, pears, peaches, and pineapple rings. Debbie nicknamed the cake Mystique, in honor of the blue shape-shifting Xman.

10.

Close up of the ice cream cake: crushed chocolate cookie crust, raspberry sorbet, crushed cookies and fudge sauce, strawberry and chocolate chip ice creams, and fudge ripple top. Gorged on cake, we all had a great, relaxing summer evening.