When several family members began to ask me what I wanted for my birthday cake, and after thinking about how long it had been since I had made my favorite cake, I told them that I wanted to make a Tuxedo cake. The recipe is in one of my fav recipe books called The Pastry Queen, given to me by a dear friend years ago. So finally today I made it! Because it is a 3 layer cake, it would last Randy and I probably until we go into a nursing home before we could eat it all! It is one of those cakes that needs to be made when you have a lot of friends/family around to help you eat it. And trust me, when they have a slice, it will not last long. It is made with two layers of chocolate cake and one layer of vanilla cake wedged between the chocolate layers! Chocolate frosting adorns (doesn’t that make it sound so fancy when you use that word?) between the 3 layers and then, frost the entire cake with buttercream frosting….but wait….your still not through! A layer of chocolate ganache, made from heavy whipping cream and semi sweet chocolate chips is poured over the top! And there you have it! A beautiful Tuxedo cake! Today I just used Duncan Hines chocolate fudge cake mix and a DH white cake mix! Used my fav chocolate buttercream for the inside and a white frosting for the outside. The ganache is 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips and 1/2 heavy whipping cream, 1 teas vanilla!

Ganache: heat the creme until it bubbles around the sides in a heavy saucepan. Pour over the chocolate chips and stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla. When ganache is no longer warm pour over the top of frosted cake!

Recipes for frosting are in blog in search bar, type in Tuxedo cake on Chocolatecastles.com.

Today is my birthday! Seventy Two years of life, each year a little different from the last. Actually this year had me think of something I had never truly thought of before. Because of Roe vs Wade, things that have never entered my mind became so clear that I felt the need to share. As most of you know, I have shared before that my mom was a lady who had trouble being happy! She spent so much of her later life with depression and ultimately dementia! Not really knowing what all went on with her early years, I can only speculate on what she felt or what her real thoughts were. I do know she did love the Lord and tried to live for others, as she did so much for friends/family! But it was at home that she struggled. Behind closed doors as they say, she seemed to allow the “real” her to be seen that the outside world, for the most part, never saw. I spent many years truly never honoring her because of this. But as I have aged into these “golden years” , so many memories have come to mind! As i stated above, Roe vs Wade caused me to think of my mom! She became pregnant with me in 1949. The father, Gene Gipson, was in the Navy and stationed in San Diego, CA, where my mom had gone to live after working in San Francisco. Before my mom, Hope, could tell him she was PG with me, she found out he also was being named by a lady as the father of her unborn child. Mother moved back to Ardmore, OK and choose to keep me! Thinking back of what it must have been like for her, a single mom back in 1949-50, one can only im again! Back then, no one was walking around proud to be carrying a child out of wedlock, or bragging about it! I’m sure people looked at her, with contempt and scorn! The easy way out for her would have been abortion! She never talked about what her friends or family said or how they treated her, but I’m sure it was not an easy road to walk. When I was 8 months old, she married a man who loved me as his own! Several times they tried to have another child but was unable to do so! She lost two other babies so I was an only child! What a unselfish gift she gave to me…life! It is because she made the hard choice to keep me that I am here today! So Mother, for the many times, I did not honor you or rebelled against you, forgive me! I pray that I will live for however many years the Lord gives me, with a grateful heart for your unselfish and sacrificial love that you had for me! May I celebrate you today and give thanks for a mom who choose Life for her unborn child! Thanks be to God Almighty!