Growing up, we always sang Happy Birthday in both Spanish and English.
You know the feeling when you know your birthday cake is about to come out. The lights go out, all of the chitter-chatter in the room goes quiet, and in a split second, your heart stops and you kinda forget to breathe. Then, the glow of the candles appears from the kitchen and all the eyes in the room turn towards you. Everyone is smiling. Your eyes go wide with anticipation. The cake is suddenly right in front of you, the candles burning brightly.
And then the singing begins. Happy birthday to you…..
Everyone is singing out of pitch - I mean they really set you up for failure with this song, don’t they? Aside from Marilyn Monroe, can anyone sing it beautifully? And you’re sitting there, trying to figure out what to do with all of this *attention*. A whole year goes by without getting this attention! It’s very intense! Some people soak it all up (like moi), and some people look down at their feet clearly extremely uncomfortable.
At the end of that off-pitch song, everyone claps and screams “yayyyyyy!”
And this is probably the part where you blow out the candles.
But not me.
Then, my mom would say “now in Spanish!!!” And here we would go again….
Feliz, Feliz en tu día
Amiguito que Dios te bendiga
Que reine la paz en tu vida
Y que cumplas muchos más
Our Spanish version is different than the one you probably sang a few times in your beginners Spanish class. It’s the Puerto Rican version. It’s definitely more melodic - so you can avoid those out of pitch moments. It also much more sweet and meaningful.
It translates to
Happy, happy in your day
Little friend God bless you
May peace reign in your life
And have more years
My mother and I would always sing our own versions of this song, belting parts in a made up language that only vaguely resembled Spanish, since I never actually grew up speaking the language. I knew I wasn’t saying the words correctly, but I didn’t care. I always loved when it was time to sing this part.
It was really the one time of the year we even spoke Spanish in my household.
My father spoke Spanish fluently but my mother didn’t speak a lick of Spanish, and my dad never taught her or us as kids. I’m sure it was just easier that way for him, since English was really his first language and our whole community in D.C. spoke English anyway. But I was always so curious about this language, and I was so excited for this one chance every year to experience it.
After the song finished, the room would go silent, and I would suck in as much breath as I could hold, think really hard about what I wanted that year, and blow out the candles. Make a wish. We’d all cheer. It was always the happiest moment of the year.
my 4th birthday with the coveted barbie cake…and potentially the happiest I’ve ever been.
My whole life, people have always asked me “where are you from???” and anyone who’s mixed race knows that this really means, “why are you brown?” And I always told them I was American. In my mind, I was actually the ultimate American. One that was a blend of so many different rich cultures - Puerto Rican, Spanish, German, Irish, Swiss, etc. (damn, you should SEE my 23&Me!).
But on birthdays, we sang loudly in Spanish and I felt proud of our Puerto Rican ethnicity, even if I didn’t really relate or understand it at the time. Singing happy birthday in both Spanish and English felt like our one homage to all of the parts of me. It was ritual and it felt so natural.
After blowing out the candles, we would cut up my mother’s homemade cake and everyone would get a slice. Mine always with a side of ice cream.
my dad and his family in new york in ~1956 (he’s the baby up top on the shoulders).
As the years went on, I perfected my favorite cake. It’s a vanilla cake with dulce de leche filling and chocolate ganache and topped with toasted hazelnuts. We even sell it as cupcake at Baked&Wired - and it’s called the Tessita (hey, you come up with the cupcake, you get to name it!) and I always shameless recommend it to any customer who asks what the best cupcake is. It really is the best.
Today is my 31st birthday.
And for the first time, I’m making my own birthday cake. It’s my first year in NYC, away from my family and the bakery, and I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do on this day than make this special treat for myself and also share it with you. So while I certainly will not be having a party, I most certainly will still be having a birthday cake. Oh, and I’ll definitely still sing happy birthday - both versions.
Feliz Birthday Cake
yields one 9” 2-layer cake
The Dulce de Leche
If you want to be extra like me and add this dulce de leche to your cake, you need to set aside about 4 hrs. Do this a day (or several days) ahead. When it comes to anything that takes this much time to prepare, I always just make a lot of it so that I can pop leftovers in my fridge. So yes, I will be pouring this dulce over my ice cream, spreading it on toast, and straight up licking it off my fingers for the next couple weeks.
Ingredients
3 cans sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Now do it!
Peel the labels off your sweet and condensed milk and place in a large aluminum pan and cover with at least 2 inches of water. That’s right, don’t open it! Keep it completely in the can. Bring to boil and then turn heat to a consistent simmer.
Add water as needed as it starts to boil off.
Once it is boiling, cook for 4 hours (the longer you cook the thicker consistency you get. Do for 2 hours if you want more of a dipping sauce)
Let the cans cool completely.
Add the milk to a bowl and add salt and vanilla. Stir until incorporated.
The Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
1 ½ cup heavy cream
⅔ cup sugar
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
20 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butter (2 sticks), cut into tablespoon pieces
⅓ cup corn syrup
⅓ cup sour cream
Now do it!
Combine the cream and sugar in a heavy saucepan and cook over medium-low heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until all the sugar dissolves. Set aside.
Combine the egg yolks and vanilla in a small bowl and whisk until blended. Whisk ½ cup of warm cream mixture into the yolks (this will slowly incorporate the heat to the eggs, so that you don’t end up with scrambled eggs). Add the yolk mixture back to the cream saucepan and cook, whisking constantly over low heat for about 5-6 minutes, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
Add the chocolate and butter and whisk several times. Remove from heat and whisk until chocolate and butter melts and the mixture is smooth.
Transfer chocolate to shallow bowl.
Add corn syrup and sour cream.
Whisk until well blended.
Refrigerate 30-40 mins until cooled, stirring occasionally.
Mixture will become thick and creamy.
Do not refrigerate too long or it will become hard to work with.
The Cake
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
Now do it!
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Take two 9” cake pans. Grease em down with butter. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit on the bottom. Dust with flour (knocking out any excess).
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time and beat for one minute.
After adding the last egg beat for three minutes.
Whisk the dry ingredients together.
Combine milk and vanilla. Then add to the wet mixture and mix in until just combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in 3 parts, taking time to mix until just incorporated before adding the next round.
Spread batter into the prepared pans. (Or if you wanna make cupcakes, spoon into parchment lined holders up to line where cupcake pan is).
Lick the damn bowl!Unless you’re a crazy person who doesn’t like cake batter.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. You’ll know it’s finished when the edges start to pull away from the sides and and when you pick up the cake, it’s no longer jiggly.
Let the cakes cool in their pans for about 5 mins. Then, take a knife and run around the edge to make sure there’s no cake sticking to the sides. If using a normal cake pan, gently flip out of the pan. If using a springform, simply release the sides so the bottom comes out.
Let cool completely. I did this even a day ahead of time, so after it cooled, I wrapped each layer tightly with parchments and plastic wrap, and then put in the fridge. This can last up to 2 days.
Let’s put it allllll together now
Spread dulce de leche in between the two layers. Frost the outside with the chocolate satin frosting. Top with toasted hazelnuts if you got em! (sadly, I did not….apparently this is not a staple item at my local bodega). But sprinkles worked too, it is a birthday cake afterall!
Happy birthday!!! Feliz cumpleaños!!!