A great guy, a cake and a story of unfailing love & friendship

Devil's Food White-Out Cake(From Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours)

For the past few years, for Bill's birthday, I let him pick out a cake from my cookbooks for me to bake for him. And this year, the pick was the Devil's Food White Out Cake. Well, technically, he wanted this cake for his birthday last year, but I opted to make him the Perfect Party Cake with Raspberries, another Dorie Greenspan cake, which we both did not regret since the cake was perfect! The Devils' Food White Out Cake is perfect in it's own way. It really is the kind of cake you don't eat daintily. This cake, you have to eat without reservation, with a glass of milk or two. It's a chocolate overload cake, what with 4 kinds of chocolate going into it. The marshmallow frosting is billowy, smooth and very light, a melt-in-your-mouth goodness!

I met Bill about about eight years ago while I was doing my internship on Business Management in Austin and he was doing consultation/project management for Dell. We were both housed at the Residence Inn, and like every extended stay hotel, you get to know all the residents after a while, what with all the social hours they have. One night, I roamed about in the lobby and there he was, sitting in one of the couch with a little notepad and a pen, in his jammies and socks, scribbling some goddess only knows what crap in his notepad. I looked in his shoulders and with my filters down, as always, exclaimed, "That's the ugliest handwriting I've ever seen in my entire life! And oh, can I bum one of your cigarettes?" He looked at me in disbelief, and well, after that, the rest is history. He was destined to put up with all my crap.

About a couple of years ago, we went through trying times. Bill got very sick -- he needed an organ transplant to live, and for almost a year, we spent more time in the hospital than anywhere else. It was devastating! For the first time in my life, I was lost, I was scared. You see, Bill is my only family here in the States, what with everyone being back in the Philippines. He is the ONLY one I got. Most of our friends think that I am the strong one in our relationship, the alpha dog, the one who runs the show. What they do not know is that I draw my strength from Bill, my pillar of strength. Bill is the one who constantly remind me that everything is going to be okay, the one person who helps me pick up the little pieces of me when I am broken, the one who lets me cry when I have to, bitch when I want to, laugh with me when I am trying to be funny, laugh at me when I am being stupid and put me in check when I needed to. I never need to pretend to be someone or something else around him, because I know, regardless of who I am that very moment, he will love me nonetheless.

He is personified in this blog as the man behind all the awesome photos, the numero uno frosting biotch, the brownie monster, the lime pie expert or simply Himself. But outside the blogosphere, he is my very best friend, the one person who will always be there for me when everyone and everything else fails to.

To Bill, a happy, happy birthday! May all your hearts desire come forth. Thanks for putting up with me and all my shite all these years. I love you much, dude!