2020 was the year of altered celebrations. Whether it was birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, holidays or religions occasions, so many milestones in ours lives were simply not the same in 2020. Early in the pandemic, they simply went by without any real fan fair, except for perhaps a quick Zoom call with close family.

But as the year went along, we adapted. We hosted a virtual Zoom Bat Mitzvah for our middle child along with a cake-cutting and Horah (a traditional Jewish celebration dance), social distance birthday parties around the fire pit, and outdoor movie nights for close friends. They were fun and different, and perhaps even more memorable, although not nearly as festive.

And one thing was constant throughout. CAKE! There always seemed to be a homemade cake to mark the occasion. And I couldn't settle on just one, so for my 4th best meal of 2020, it's all about the cake!

First up was a middle school graduation for my oldest daughter. Chocolate cake with vanilla chocolate chip buttercream frosting.

When my son's birthday rolled around, it was obvious what had to be done. He could care less about what was inside, and I frankly can't even remember at this point, but the top had an edible screen print of his favorite game. He was in absolute heaven.

I can't take credit for the biggest and best looking cake of the year. This donut-themed spectacle was made by a local baker to celebrate the Bat Mitzvah, but I couldn't write a blog post about cake and not mention it!

Then came the exciting announcement of the birth of my dear friend and co-worker's baby. I delivered this chocolate cake topped with vanilla buttercream and festive sprinkle candies as part of a complete meal train dinner delivery. I think they had enough cake for an army.

With a ton of sprinkles left, I figured why not reuse them for my wife's birthday. Changed it up a bit for this one and went with a strawberry cake and raspberry jam filling.

As fall turned to winter, it clearly wasn't too cold outside, because my oldest's birthday request was for an ice cream cake. With a nut allergy at home, we can't have any of the store bought cakes, so it was homemade again! A bottom layer of devil's food cake, a middle filling of hot fudge mixed with crumbled Oreos, a top layer of cookies and creme ice cream, all surrounded by cool whip and some melted chocolate writing. Not too bad!

And that brings us to the end of this dreadful year. Can't have a New Year's Eve celebration with the family without dessert. So for this pseudo-festive night, some French vanilla cupcakes with whipped chocolate buttercream. My kids may have thought it looked like the poo emoji, but I assure you it didn't taste like it!

So there you have it. I guess you can have your cake and eat it, too. Here's to some amazing cake in 2021, hopefully in person soon enough!!! Tune in next week to see what made #3 on my Top 5 meals of 2020 list!