Christmas is great, don't get me wrong, but I LOVE summer!  Warm sunshine, green grass and leaves (although that was lacking this year), grilling, evening walks, lemonade, ice cream, bonfires, listening to cicadas, pools, lakes, sandals, HEAT.  Yes, heat. All summer long I carry around a sweater to wear inside, because lots of businesses turn into ice boxes during the summer.  After being in an ice box building, I think one of the best feelings is ditching my cardigan and getting into a 120ish degree car and instantly warming up.  Feel free to call me crazy.

With that said, how is it already the middle of September?  Even though it was 90 degrees outside today, the feeling of summer is already gone.  Other than school starting and Labor Day, the end of summer was also signified by Ahmed's birthday.  Ahmed turned the big 3-0 on August 29th, which he celebrated with three nights of birthday fun.  I also remade last year's delicious cake.  

Birthday boy and I out for dinner at Chester's

This year's cake turned out even better.  Similar to last year, I had a botched batch of frosting.   However, the second round frosting was not store bought, and turned out to be my new favorite!  I am not a huge frosting person, and this cake is rather rich, so I was going for something on the light side.  This recipe turned out exactly how I was hoping it would.  Well, other than my decorating skills. 

I posted the cake recipe last year, so here is the recipe for the frosting:

Best Whipped Frosting(Adapted from canyoustayfordinner.com)
1 cup milk1/4 cup plus 1 tbs (5 tbs) flour2 tsp vanilla1 cup butter, at room temperature1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (not powdered sugar)
In a medium saucepan, whisk milk with flour.  Heat over medium until mixture begins to sputter, whisking constantly.  Mixture is done when it reaches the consistency of thick cake batter, approx. 7 minutes of heating and whisking.  Stir in vanilla and set aside to cool COMPLETELY.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment, or using a hand held mixer, beat butter and sugar until light, fluffy, and white in color, approx. 3 solid minutes of beating on medium-high speed.  You want the sugar to be totally incorporated into the butter.

After the milk/flour mixture has cooled COMPLETELY, add it to the butter/sugar mixture.  Beat all ingredients for about 1 minute on high speed, until they are smooth and well blended.  The frosting should be as light and fluffy as whipped cream.

This made enough frosting to generously frost the cake I made.  It was so good!  I am slightly ashamed to say that over the period of a week, I ate about 3/4 of the cake.  In my defense, I have been spending a lot of time at home since I still don't have a job, and I didn't want the cake to go to waste.  :)  I may have to stick to making this cake only for Ahmed's birthday.

Happy end of summer to all my fall loving friends!