Thoughts About Birthday Cakes.

My roommate, Karilee, had a birthday last week. She had about ten people over for dinner, and I volunteered to make her birthday cake. And then I asked her what kind of cake she wanted because on your birthday you should choose the type of cake.
Keyword - should.
My little sister doesn't eat chocolate. When my birthday rolled around each July, we ordered a vanilla cake. It wasn't until I went to college that I learned that in other families the birthday kid picked the kind of cake or dessert. We always had white cake.

As I write this, I know that my mom and sister are rolling their eyes. The fact about the white cake is that it was the best cake I've ever had. Still to this day, it is the greatest white cake ever. Unfortunately, the "Cake Lady" as we called her, isn't in the business anymore. Otherwise I would buy each of you a cake for your birthday.

It was that good.

Back to Karilee's birthday cake. She wanted chocolate, and I instantly thought of our friend Meg's wonderful chocolate chip cake. It was so rich and delicious, and I knew Lindsay had the recipe. She emailed it to me, and I almost died. Seriously, my arteries closed up a little bit. The reason the cake was SO good had a lot to do with the 3/4 cup of oil in the cake.

I found an almost identical cake at Cooking Light but in a much lighter form. I followed the directions exactly as they were written and made this beauty of a cake.
Rachel is the only person who thought it tasted "light" but not in a bad way. It was well received at the birthday party and the leftovers were gobbled up at school lunch.

I would make it again because it was moist, and it came out of the pan. My biggest fear in cake baking is that it won't come out of the pan.

And most importantly, it was chocolate. I will spend the rest of my life making up for all the chocolate cakes I didn't get to eat as a kid.