100 di questi giorni

My 31st birthday is September 6, which is Tuesday, but since I'm working Monday through Thursday and am busy with other things this weekend, today was Romie's Birthday (observed). Ciro got me Portal 2, which I've been playing all day, and Mom and Dad got me a tea ball (for steeping loose-leaf tea) that floats on top of the water and looks like a small rubber duck. (It also happens to diffuse the tea really well, but this is almost an accident.)

Ciro asked me what cake I wanted, and the first cake I picked was dismissed as too simple. (Famous Cookie Cake*. Which I made last week the day after I was told "not for your birthday." Which took maybe 10 minutes to assemble.) So I picked a more elaborate cake. Which took Ciro something like three days and had him up until 6 a.m. last night. It required building a superstructure of sculpted chocolate, the candying of oranges, infusing a ricotta, and baking several layers of hazelnut cake, ideally in a specialty pan that is almost impossible to find in the U.S. Also, Mom found candles that burn with colored flame - blue and green and red and purple.

We omitted the gold leaf.

It was very nice. Ciro is considering making it again for 12th Night, possibly because it will take that long to make again.

*Ingredients:
2 cups whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 package Famous Chocolate Wafers (a very thin chocolate cookie that can be found in most grocery stores; recipe comes from the back of the box)

Directions:
Beat the whipping cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
Spread a spoonful of the whipped cream onto each wafer. Stack the wafers, then lay them down on a platter in a log.
Frost with the remaining whipped cream until all the chocolate is covered.
Refrigerate 4 hours. Cut diagonally to serve.