The Adventures of Saviya and Colin in Europe: The Birthday Post

So I celebrated my 36th birthday in Amsterdam. I add that to Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tacoma, Las Vegas, Fairbanks (30!) and Anchorage (35!). I would have never guessed I would spend two birthdays in Alaska, but Amsterdam was also nice to add to the list.

So we came across several of the Dutch ‘offerings’ for cake and frosting, and they are unique to say the least. There really aren't ready made cakes or cookie or brownies to the level you would expect here. There tend to be two or three different brands all with the exact same offering. This would be something like Roomboter cake, which is a rich pound cake desert. There are at least 8 different Roomboter cakes next to each other, all tasting virtually the same. They have other wonders like “Americanse Kokjes” which in itself is funny as that's their way of saying American Cookies..but they look nothing like I would expect in the US. The oddest of all is their frosting. They have this hermetically sealed bag with a hard block of chocolate or vanilla substance. You toss the bag into some warm/hot water and let it sit for 10 mins which turns the contents into molten sugar. This isn't the wonderful goo that we all have come to love in the states, nor the garbage smear that places are using now that is akin to whipped cream frosting. Its basically a glaze.

So armed with this knowledge, Saviya set off into Amsterdam to find me an American cake mix and frosting. There are several American and English import stores in Holland that cater to tourists and expats like us. She rode our loaner bike to a store in the Leidseplein and picked up a few items. She came home and sent me away for a few hours to the market and told me to stay away. I came home to a yummy cake with real frosting. And to my chagrin, 36 candles….

And like the rest of the cake offerings in Holland, their candles are odd as well. She lit all 36 candles and called me into the room…It looked like a Baked Alaska, or flambé..These candles are made of Sterno fuel or something. In literally under 90 seconds they all burned down to nubs and left a little puddle of some plasticy wax … But I blew them out, plucked out the dried wax puddles and enjoyed cake for several days! The other little chocolates that were put on the cake were closer to moth balls than sweet…But the cake was yummy, frosting was yummy and it was made with Love!