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birthday cake, birthday tradition, chocolate sponge cake, Nontan, steamed chocolate sponge cake, steamed sponge cake
Every year for our birthday – whenever we can get home to celebrate it if we happen to miss it or away at college or some event, etc, my mom makes us a special birthday cake.
The same cake, every year for every one of our birthdays, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! It is a steamed chocolate sponge cake, light, fluffy moist and covered in whatever berries or fruit are fresh and ripe at the time (and for my birthdays in November, it was usually canned mandarin oranges or peaches or sometimes strawberries if we could find them) and freshly whipped, whipped cream. It is never decadent and a picture of our birthday cakes, year after year, would not be found on the cover of any foodie magazine, but it was tradition. A delicious and perfect tradition. Made with love.
Many a year, and sometimes just for a family occassion and not even for a birthday (!), a rare treat, my little brother and I – especially when there were only two of us, would sit on chairs or stools crowded into the kitchen to watch my mom make this cake. Our jobs were to get her anything she needed, (try to) stay out of her way, and then crowd her and the bowl when it came time to whip the cream.
Those were the days when licking the beaters wasn’t an all-out WWF competition!! My mom used the old school hand mixers with the two interlocking, metal beaters and instead of three other siblings, I just had the one. So we each got a beater to lick, it was civil, memorable and such a tasty tradition. As the years went on and there were more children – two more in fact, there were tears, chasing and bloodshed when it came to licking the beaters. This forced my mother into making this special cake for us during nap time, while we were busy at school or still sleeping either early in the morning or late at night.
But regardless of when she made it, we always had this special cake for each of our birthdays, every year for as long as I can remember.
As we grew older, living on our own, in apartments or houses or dorms, we would make trips back to visit whenever we could and if we had missed our birthday, she would make this cake for us – along with whatever foods we were craving that just tastes better when mom makes them for you.
And we still fight over the beaters. Three of us are in our twenties and the youngest is 17 – almost 18, and we will chase each other around the house, or strong-arm, pinch, punch, kick and scream to get a beater! No kidding! It’s possibly quite embarrassing behavior to see from four full-grown children, but it means just that much to each of us. Of course, at this age, we would rather wrestle, but when you are holding a beater in the air to which the precious fresh whipped cream is clinging, you can’t make too many jerky movements or run too quickly, which gives the other three siblings ample opportunity to cut off your escape route or pin you to a wall or the floor and tickle, pinch or wrangle the beater away from you. Then the chase ensues. This continues until my mom screams at us to stop, or we all wind up covered in whipped cream, collapsing in exhaustion (and embarrassment).
My poor, sweet, humble husband – the first boy of six children in his household, did not believe me when I told him this is what would happen when my mom made the cake for us, on a trip home, early in our marriage but he was soon able to witness, first hand, the stampede of me and my younger brother, chasing each other around the house, slamming doors in each others faces, knocking over suitcases or pulling out chairs to create obstacles, one holding out the prized beater in front of them while the other chased.
You might be thinking – if there are only two siblings and two beaters, why was there a chase?
Simple.
My mother and I were chatting while making the cake, and I was able to lick one beater during this chatting and cake making moment of ours, when my youngest brother (conveniently) wandered into the kitchen and saw we were making this cake, just as my mom hands me the second beater and asks if my husband who was in the other room watching TV, would like the beater to lick? A long, thin arm suddenly appeared between my mother and I, snatching the beater out of her hand, and the chase was on!
My husband, a man who avoids conflicts like this one, came to see what all the rukus was about and when he saw the chasing, pinching, tickling and screaming and deduced what was happening, he yelled at us to stop chasing each other because he did not want to lick the beater, my brother could have it – possibly in hopes of getting his fully grown, adult wife to stop chasing her younger brother over something like a metal beater with whipped cream?
Ha! He just doesn’t know how important this tradition of chasing and wrestling is!! My mother tried to explain, although my husband was still incredulous at the scene he had just witnessed first hand, unable to understand the frenzy that this cake creates… six times a year!
In the end, my little brother won. I gave in, let him have it and then spent some time screaming back and forth across the house at each other. Typical sibling stuff. We won’t go into details …. for fear that I will seem even younger than you might envision me now. *grin*
As Mei’s first birthday grows nearer, and my husband and I consider the guest-list and the food and the cake we will make for the event, I am certain that we will make her one of these special cakes, to keep the tradition alive for another generation. It will be a cake we bake together, eat together, just within our family, slathering both layers in freshly whipped, whipped cream and loading it with sliced, fresh fruit – whatever we can find in January, simply decorated, no frills or fancy piping or multiple layers.
In fact, one of the little things I got for Mei soon after she was born, in anticipation of her first birthday, was an exact copy of a childhood book that is a part of a series that my mother bought for me when I was three years old. You fill in the details with how old you are, your weight, height, favorite foods, foods you don’t like, what you want to be when you grow up at that time, etc. There is an empty page for you to draw yourself a picture, then stickers where you can put your birthday candles on this huge birthday cake that is in the book and write your name on the cake and fill in other information and when you are all done, it reads like a story of the main series character, Nontan – a white cat, celebrating your birthday with his friends. I can’t wait for Mei’s birthday so I can fill it in! Although I would like to wait until she is maybe two or three so she can actually really “draw”… I don’t know how much she can even scribble when she is one years old – I guess we will have to wait and see! On the dedication page of this small, hardback is a place to put a photo of you on your birthday and I thought there was a picture of me with my birthday cake – the same elusive cake I have been telling you about, but alas there is none, it is a picture of my Aunt who was 33 years old on my third birthday and we are about to open presents. So there is no picture of this cake for now, all my childhood photos are safely stored at my parent’s house in the US, a plane ride away and I have no way of getting copies of them anytime soon. *sigh* But believe me, the cake is amazingly delicious!
Back to birthday planning, I have lists stuck to the refrigerator with ideas and menu ideas for the savory and sweet items I plan to make for Mei’s first birthday and one of the items that are going to appear are chocolate dipped coconut macaroons! While you all are probably wondering how to make the prized steamed chocolate sponge cake, I must take a moment to disappoint you because this cake will have to remain a secret family recipe. But I will leave you with the recipe for the chocolate dipped coconut macaroons … these are a perfect dish to take to a dinner party, a birthday celebration, a little pick-me-up for a down-in-the-dumps kind of a day, or a great use for leftover egg whites… in other words? They are perfect!
How do you celebrate birthdays? What is your favorite childhood birthday memory?
This post was inspired by The Naptime Chef, who is hosting a birthday palooza with daily posts for one week on all things birthday related! As a part of next week’s birthday challenge, she is also hosting a giveaway – and there is still time to enter! Head on over to see what’s cookin’ in her kitchen during naptime by clicking here!
Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons
Ingredients:
- 6 large egg whites
- 2 TBS sugar
- 1/4 tsp plus a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-1/2 TBS honey
- 3-3/4 C shredded, sweetened coconut
- 1/4 C plus 2 TBS flour
In a large skillet, mix together the egg whites, sugar, slat, honey and flour. Whisk together to combine then add the coconut and mix until the coconut is evenly coated and distributed.
Heat the mixture over low to moderate heat on the stove, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom as you stir.
When the mixtures begins to scorch on the bottom, remove fromt he heat and stir in the vanilla, transfer to a bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature.
Form the dough into mounds. I like to use a melon baller then roll them between wet hands to get a “perfect ball” shape, the wet hands keep the coconut from sticking to your hands.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are a deep golden brown, cool completely.
Once they are cool, you can dip them in melted chocolate, or eat them as is!
For the melted chocolate, I use 150g or two bars of dark chocolate, break them up into pieces and heat them over low heat in a nonstick saucepan or you can make chocolate ganache to dip them in by adding 1 TBS of butter and 2TBS of heavy cream until it is all combined in the melted chocolate. Then dip the bottoms or halves in the chocolate and set them on parchment lined baking sheets and put them in the refrigerator until the chocolate has set.