Hidden Heart Cake from Beautiful Bundts

Happy Birthday to my beautiful mother AND to my beautiful bulldog. This year they are the same age (adjusted for dog years). Izzy got her own chocolate-free version of a hidden heart Bundt cake featured in Beautiful Bundts by Julie Hession. Happy 9th, dear Izzy! She wasn’t very interested in the cookbook, but perked up […]

Pumpkin Cupcakes for my Pumpkin

We celebrate Izzy’s 8th birthday this year with cupcakes, a kibble cupcake for the bully, and pumpkin marshmallow cupcakes for us. She has settled into our lives like an heirloom, a treasure, a thing that we have been lucky to get, ancient and precious, decorating the living room with various stations of repose. She loves […]

Juicy Wine Cakes for my Favorite Dunce

“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” -Jonathan Swift, from “Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting” Happy 7th Birthday, Izzy, bulldog of mine. You and Ignatius Jacques Reilly, the fat buffoon protagonist of Jonathan Kennedy Toole’s Confederacy […]

Bulldog Birthday Cake

Izzy the Tooth is six years old. I am aware that I photograph my bulldog more than I would a firstborn human. Izzy, however, is not aware that she is not, in fact, a firstborn human. I’m beginning to wonder if occasions like her birthday, on which she gets fed ample, extra portions of treats […]

Whole-Wheat Mocha Chiffon Cake

Happy Fourth Birthday to Izzy the Tooth! We celebrate today the joy Izzy has brought to our lives since she became a part of our family in August. I feel like Izzy has already had a birthday since more than half of my birthday cards from this year feature bulldog photographs. Also, Izzy made three […]