February is Cake Month

February is the month I like to call Cake Month. All the months in the year have their very own titles ‘national month of…’ or a ‘the month of…’ and sometimes there are several of these titles for each month. There are some 'national month of..' that are more known than others, but each month has at least one. Now by calling it Cake Month you might imagine the month being about celebrating the many YUMMY different kinds of cake, but... not quite. Let me better explain the reason why I call it that.

First I have to tell you a little bit about me and my family. I am the fifth child in my family, out of seven. I have three brothers and three sisters. Two of my brothers are younger than I am, and then the rest of my siblings are older. Out of the seven children three of us have our birthdays in February; my oldest sister Christine, third oldest sister Kim, and me. Our birthday’s fall into each week of February, not counting that last half of the month. The first week is mine, the second is Christine’s and then the third is Kim’s. With celebrating birthday's usually a traditional way to celebrate such a great day is to blow out candles lit on top of a birthday cake and then enjoy the cake afterwards. My family does that, but we don't have just one, but two cakes. One cake is homemade and the birthday girl/boy gets to choose what flavor they want it to be. My siblings and I are fans of the simple ones, like Vanilla and Chocolate. I love Vanilla cake more than I do Chocolate, but Marble cake is delicious way to mix together a little bit of chocolate with vanilla to make a great combination of both cakes.

The second cake is not homemade, at least not by us. This cake we buy and bring home to enjoy. A family tradition of ours is to get a Carvel ice cream cake for every birthday. So with these birthdays right after another we get to enjoy yummy Ice cream cake three times in February. All of my family members have a favorite part of the ice cream cake. The kind of ice cream cake we generally get is where the chocolate ice cream is the bottom layer of the cake, a cookie crumble is the middle separating the two ice cream flavors, which brings us to the top ice cream layer; vanilla ice cream. Covering those layers is white icing, then a gel icing is on top with different colored balloons and a 'Happy Birthday!' written out, last there is blue icing with sprinkles surrounding the edges of the cake. Most of my siblings love the blue icing that goes on the edges, but my favorite part of the cake is the cookie in the middle! I love the entire cake, but the cookie is the 'icing on the cake' for me.

Now that you know why I call it Cake Month, think about some of your traditions for birthdays, they probably vary from my family's. No matter how different they may be, they will still be similar by making a birthday wish and then blowing out the candles and lastly, eating your birthday cake. Those of you that will also be celebrating a birthday in February, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I hope you have a great day! Everyone who have already had or are having one later in the year, I wish you the same!

Yours truly,

Danielle Knapp

State Council Reporter