I didn’t blog yesterday because I went out for drinks with my girlfriend for her birthday. We met up with some of her friends at a wine bar in Gowanus that looks like a log cabin. It was cool.

It was a rainy Monday, the first Monday back from a holiday break, and I didn’t feel like writing. What I felt like doing was eating cake. My girlfriend made me a cake for my birthday and I thought it only appropriate that I make her one. And besides cake is awesome, who doesn’t want cake?

She asked for a lemon coconut cake. I found a vegan lemon cake recipe and went for it. I also bought some coconut and toasted it myself then put it around the outside of the cake.

I’m not gonna lie, people, I was impressed with myself.

That is until I decided to write, “Happy Birthday, Christina” on the top and realized that the decorative gel packets you get from a grocery store aren’t exactly accurate writing implements. So, the writing on the cake ended up looking like the work of a fourth grader (and I mean no offense to fourth graders). There’s a reason the picture above captures the cake without the disaster that was a red, cursive “stina.”

I have a newfound respect for the people who make sheet cakes in the grocery store. You have skills, my friends, impressive skills.

As for the verdict, my vegan lemon cake with toasted coconut is pretty damn good.