Birthday baking results

So last night I made the pumpkin chiffon cake--my first ever chiffon cake, and I was very nervous! I am generally more nervous when I try new baking things than when I try new savory things, because most cake recipes talk about mixers and blenders, neither of which I own. I beat by hand, with either a wire whisk or a wooden spoon. Never the less, I still try new things because the art of cake-baking predates electric mixers, so I'm sure my methods are still usable.

So, the chiffon cake--my cookbook said to handle it veeeeeery carefully, as they are liable to collapse. So, remove it from the oven slowly and carefully, and then let it cool by putting the tube pan upside-down on a wine bottle so that it doesn't collapse while it is cooling. After it is cooled, you are supposed to remove it from the pan by scraping it from the sides of the pan with a rubber spatula. It supposedly has a tendency to stick because you are not allowed to grease the pan.

Okay, so here I am, right? Caaaaaarefullly and slooooooowly removing it from the oven, geeeeeently turning it upside-down and lowering it onto the wine bottle, balancing it carefully on top so the bottle doesn't fall over. Then I ponder the question of how I am supposed to scrape it out from the pan when the pan is fluted, right?

Then...

PLOP!!

Mofo just falls out of the pan onto the counter!! It didn't collapse, though, thank goodness! If it had, though, I'd still eat it anyway! Haha!

I also made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and Hershey's Kisses on top. Passing them out today made me feel like one of those stereotypical chocoholic women ("Oh how I adore chocolate!" (said in inappropriately gushy voice that makes me squeamish)), but what the hell. I had a whole box of dutch-processed cocoa to use up, so there you have it. Plus I wanted to use up the Hershey's kisses that had been in my cupboard and which Dan had "organized" into a plastic bucket so I could have said bucket for storage of flour.

My birthday dinner menu:
Roast cornish game hens
Baked pumpkin stuffed with wild rice with sage and onions
Garlic noodles (doesn't go with the theme at all, but they are for good luck... a Chinese tradition!)
Greekish salad (greens with kalamata olives, tomatoes, sweet Alaskan onions, my own homemade fresh cheese, etc)
pumpkin chiffon cake! (best when served after having been plopped onto the kitchen counter)!

And with that I only have four pumpkins from my stash left, plus five cups frozen in the freezer, for the holiday pies.

Photos of all to come!