"happy birthday" news and stories

A few days ago, we posted that our geeky (but lovable) cousin, Engadget, had turned two years old, and to celebrate, the engadget team sponsored a birthday cake contest.

Lots and lots of engadgeteers sent in stories and photos of birthday cakes, and Engadget has chosen the winner of the Alienware gift - the cakeis "working" Palm Treo. Take a peek at some of the prize-winning cakes, some of which could rival professional pastry chefs!

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I've told the story to many a friend about how I appointed myself the birthday cake baker a few months into my first job out of college. When I made the decision, there were only nine investment bankers in our group. Nine cakes a year? Piece of, umm, an exhibit in an offering memorandum. No problem.

But soon our group was 27 strong and I was baking all the time, getting requests for special desserts, and generally kicking myself for stepping up. What should I do when my own birthday approached? I sucked it up and ate the cardboard-tasting grocery store cake that was the reason I'd decided to start baking for my co-workers in the first place.

Like Kelli, I'd much rather make my own birthday cake (and have, many a year). She fixed herself a delicious-sounding concoction of chocolate, hazelnut, ganache, genoise, mocha filling... yum. She provides general instructions, along with some links to recipes, if you'd like to recreate it for your own special day.

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