Momma's Birthday Dinner

Tonight we celebrated my mom's birthday with our traditional birthday dinner. Usually when one of us has a birthday that falls on a weekday, we celebrate it the following weekend. I got up this morning and made our family's favorite homemade chocolate cake, baked some HUGE potatoes and threw together a salad to go with the steaks (my mom's favorite) that my dad grilled out. Of course, we washed it all down with our southern sweet tea! Our recipe for the cake is:

Chocolate Cake

3 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

6 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup oil

2 Tbs. vinegar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease cake pan(s). In large bowl combine first 5 ingredients (dry ingredients), then add the remaining ingredients and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well combined. Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean, and center of cake is springy to the touch. Let cool on rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool for remaining time on the rack. When cool, frost.

Frosting

Mix:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup milk

Our place settings:

Me and Momma
Frosting the cake:
Alaina straightening up for the dinner:
A mound of baked potatoes!
Almost time to eat:)
My dad, the grilling king
Momma opening her presents