Half Birthdays

Half birthdays have always been a big deal in my family, thanks to my wonderful mom!  For every half birthday, at least from the time I can remember until I left for college, my mom made each of us "half" a cake.  As a child, I often wondered how my mom could make only have of a cake, but I eventually found out that either she would hide the cake (if it was a bundt cake) or she would make a sheet cake and cut it in half and stack it.

Once I got to college, I couldn't have the homemade cake, so my mom would often order me a cake to pick up at a local bakery.  My half birthday is November 1, so they were often right at Halloween and were appropriately themed.  I think rather than tell the bakery that it was my 1/2 birthday, she pretended like it was for Halloween and then told me happy 1/2 birthday.

This tradition has been picked up by some, including my friend Aisling, who somehow convinced friends while she was studying abroad in England, that it was an American tradition for people to buy half pints on someone's half birthday.  Now that she has returned to England to live on a more permanent basis, I wonder if she is still sticking to her "American" traditions!

Recently, on January 27th to be exact, my youngest (as of this very moment) nephew had his very first 1/2 birthday, so I thought it was appropriate to celebrate and mark the occasion, and perhaps even to start a trend in the Doose family.  I baked my little Dean a 1/2 birthday cake.  Obviously being 6 months old he couldn't eat the cake, but the adults enjoyed any excuse to have a cake.  Here's a picture of my entirely from scratch cake.  I thought it might topple over!