Bobbie's birthday

My lovely daughter turned two. How time flies.

My mum always remembered to buy a Christmas gift for our cats. one year it was a pouch of catnip nestled between the tree’s branches. I have carried on this tradition with my own fur baby. Except, I go a step further and wrap her gift, before putting it under the tree. Here is a video of her last Christmas, opening her first wrapped gift.

I didn’t think to wrap Bobbie's presents until my housemate told me that she did it for her dog. She said that she loved to watch their excitement when ripping open the present. I understood completely when I watched Bobbie’s tail wagging and her smile as she was encouraged to tear the paper apart.

The present

I sat down at the dining table in the kitchen and laid her gifts on top of the wrapping paper I had strewn across the table. Have you ever tried to wrap a ball? Let me tell you, it is far from easy. It’s even harder when wrapping gifts is the Bain of your existence. When I lived at home, my sibling was the designated gift wrapper. Even after they moved out, I’d gather all the gifts I had purchased and take the two buses to their house. I’d sit and watch as they wrapped them with an ease I still can't mimic, even after all these years.

I tried to hide all the janky edges by folding two triangles and then folding again as my sibling had done. Just not as pretty. After struggling to get the tape to stick, I was happy with the outcome.

The cake

This year I chose a different recipe for her birthday cake. I wanted a smaller cake since last year a lot of it went to waste. I found a recipe that called for an 8-inch cake tin and decide that would be a good size. When I went shopping for the ingredients, I made sure the peanut butter I bought didn’t have Xylitol as an ingredient. According to Jason Nicholas’s (2021) article, Xylitol is used as a sugar replacement in foods, such as certain peanut butter. He goes on to say that Xylitol is toxic to dogs and in worse cases can lead to death if ingested by your fur baby.

My nana was an excellent baker. I remember baked goods in those old-style biscuit tins and the joy of sneaking too many pieces. My mum always remarked that she was an alright cook, but when it came to baking, something always went wrong. Her biggest issue was that her cakes were never level. They still tasted great to me. I, as a baker, fall somewhere in the middle. I can follow a recipe and most times that leads to a decent result. This cake I made for Bobbie came out well enough even if I made a few missteps.

I pulled out two mixing bowls for keeping the dry and wet ingredients separate. I decided to use the smaller bowl for wet ingredients and then proceed to put the flour into it. I huffed in frustration and rewashed the bowl.

“let’s try that again, shall we?”.

Then when I went to combine the wet and dry ingredients, they didn’t combine quite like the recipe said they would. I looked at the dry clump in the centre of the bowl, which should have looked more like a thick batter.

“Hmm, I may have to improvise a bit,” I mumbled to no one.

When I baked with my mum and the mixture wasn’t looking quite like it should, mum would tweak the recipe a bit. For example, if the mixture was too wet, add more flour.

“Well, I hope this works,” I said as poured a bit more milk into the mixture and then proceeded to try and combine it again. To my relief, the mixture formed into a batter consistency. I scooped my batter into a baking pan and preheated the oven.

When it was done, I let it cool while I made the icing, which consisted of plain Greek yogurt and peanut butter. After the cake had cooled, I iced it and garnished it with Bobbie’s favourite food, which is banana.

When it was time to cut the cake on Bobbie’s birthday, we had to stop both her and Archie (my housemate’s one-year-old Kelpie) from jumping onto the table to get a bite before it was cut. We gave Bobbie her piece first since she was the birthday girl and then Archie got his piece. As I said before this wasn’t Bobbie's first time having birthday cake and she knew to take small-ish bites. Archie, however, eagerly ate his piece in one bite. I laughed hysterically as I watched him try to chew a whole piece of cake.

My favourite part of her birthday is her opening her present. Here is a clip of that.

Happy birthday Bobbie, may we have many more.

references

The recipe I used for Bobbie's cake: https://thedishnextdoor.com/mini-dog-birthday-cake/

https://thedishnextdoor.com/mini-dog-birthday-cake/

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