the Bofenkamp's: Matt's Birthday!

I always joke with Matt after my birthday (January 3^rd) and before his (January 13^th). For 10 days I insist that I am older, wiser, and therefore have the right to be bossy for all 10 of those days………HA! This year will be one to remember as we spent our 25^th birthdays outside of the United States and in Japan! Each year I try to bake Matt a birthday cake. They never turn out beautiful enough for Martha Stewart’s magazine or to post on Pinterest. In fact, they tend to look more like they were created by a 2^nd grader. But, the point is that I enjoy making him a birthday cake and he enjoys eating it. This year was no different. Matt had bought baking supplies at the Commissary, and I thought I had everything I needed. Turns out he had bought 2 brownie mixes instead of a cake mix. So, I decided to be brave and attempt a cake from scratch. Since the dishware is limited in these apartments I borrowed a 9x9 from my friend Ashley as well as some vanilla and baking powder to complete my list of ingredients for this cake. I decided to practice with a batch of brownies before attempting the cake. I knew the oven only went up to 350 degrees, so I assumed it was in Celsius. I found the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Once I got Lily in bed I popped the brownies in the oven. I checked on them once, and they appeared to be cooking. But, by the end of a half hour they looked like they had barely cooked. So then I decided it must be in Fahrenheit, so I bumped it all the way to 350, as high as the oven would go. About 10 minutes later I noticed the smell. BURNING! I ran over to the oven and opened it up. My brownies were black and SMOKING! I grabbed pot holders and flung them out of the oven and onto a baking sheet. Then I ran with them across the living room, opened the sliding glass door and put them outside on the balcony. I shut the door ran back to the smoke alarm right above the stove and just started fanning it as fast as I could with a dish towel. I remembered that Matt had said something about the smoke alarms and how if one of ours goes off that the whole building is notified. AHHHH! The last thing I wanted was to have to wake Lily up and evacuate the building or something! All turned out fine. The smoke alarm didn’t go off and I was able to get the burnt smell out of our apartment.

The next morning I confirmed with a friend that the oven temperatures were indeed Celsius. No wonder!!!! I tried to BROIL my brownies! I realized that what had happened when they didn’t cook the first time was that I had checked on them once. After you open the oven, you have to press start again. Also, the oven won’t turn on until you set the timer. I still have no idea what the Japanese writing on the oven says. Oh well! My second batch of brownies turned out semi normal, and by that next night I was ready to try my cake from scratch.

Before starting, I thought that if the cake was anything like the brownies, I didn’t want to waste all of my friend’s vanilla and baking powder. So I went to the Japanese store nearby. Amazingly I had found what I was looking for, but when I was paying for my groceries I got all sorts of confused! I saw the amount due in yen on the screen. I looked through my change purse and decided to give her one of my bigger bills. She looked at me, and then pointed at my coin purse. I show her what else I had in it. She motioned and had me dump all my change out on the counter. Then she gave me the bill back and began picking through all of my change. She took what she wanted, so I put the rest away. But then, she pointed at the screen, and I assume she was saying I needed that much more. So I looked through the remainder of my coins and knew I didn’t have enough, so I gave her the same bill I had before. This time she took it and gave me change and other bills back. FINALLY I got to leave! At the time I had no idea what was going on, but now that I think about it, I think she was helping me out by using up my smaller coins so that I didn’t have to pack as many around. That was thoughtful of her! When I told Matt about this later that day and I said that I dumped out all of my coins, his response was “Ohhhh you’re one of those people.” Well yes, apparently I am LOL! What is nice is that the Japanese people are very honest, so I wasn’t once worried that she was stealing from me, I was certain she was helping me.

Now I was ready to conquer the birthday cake. My first cake turned out surprisingly well. It cooked perfectly. I cooked it in the 9x9 pan I borrowed, and since the first one turned out so well I decided to try and be “Miss Fancy Pants,” and make it a double layer cake. BIG MISTAKE. I didn’t let the cake cool long enough so it crumbled into pieces as I tried to get it out. I chucked it all in the garbage. I spend the rest of the night making the same cake over again. Once again it turned out well. The next morning, I was still displeased that it wasn’t a double layer cake so I cut it in half. I whipped up some butter cream frosting and stacked that half of the cake on top of the other half. VOILA! DONE! I frosted the cake, and topped it with chocolate chips and then a Winnie the Pooh toy just for kicks (I said it was Lily’s idea). I am now an expert at these Japanese ovens!

Cake Batter

Happy Birthday Matt!

Matt actually got the day of January 14^th off from work, but it was still January 13^th in the United States. This year we decided that we both got two full days for our birthdays because of the time differenceJ. This was his first day off since we had gotten to Japan. We had a nice relaxing day at home. We ate the cake, Lily took a good nap, and then we headed into downtown Yokosuka for an early dinner.

My Daddy is 25!?? I'm ONE!

For dinner we went to an Indian place called Nirvana. I had heard great things about this restaurant from my friends who had been there before. I knew exactly what to order for once. Elise had told me “Butter Chicken Curry and the Cheese Non.” She was right! Matt and I shared this very different but good meal! It was something my taste buds haven’t ever experienced before! I also loved the ambiance of the restaurant. You walk down these steep stairs and into this small room with only 8-10 tables that are very close together. The colors were vibrant and the music was great! We will definitely go back!