Today is a special day: it’s someone’s birthday — the guy I live with. Yep, it’s his birthday.
He turns 83 today!
Okay, not really — he’s actually in his 30s. The old-jokes about him being older than me lost their charm a few years back. I probably need new material, though he supplies fresh fodder daily, sometimes hourly.
This is the fifth birthday Mr. How Sweet and I have celebrated together. We officially started dating just a few days before his birthday five years ago. “Official” meant I stopped flirting with other people and he stopped drunk-dialing exes. True story.
I’m the oldest child in my family — oldest cousin, oldest grandchild — so dating someone ten years older felt like a big change. I stubbornly denied my feelings for months (seven, to be exact) before he finally convinced me to commit. Romantic, right?
Our first official date was meant to be a summer night at a Pirates game, which in our case meant eating Pittsburgh-themed food, watching fireworks, then going out for dinner and drinks. I was too smitten to mind sitting in 90-degree heat at a baseball game — a personal nightmare since I’m such a sweater.
Just before we left, he checked the tickets and realized they were for September 30th — over a week away. Secretly I thought that was perfect: a built-in plan for celebrating his birthday on the 30th. Problem was, we’d only been dating a few days and figuring out a meaningful gift felt impossible. He had his own place and plenty of things; I’d only dated guys who lived with parents and always ordered the same thing at Olive Garden. Gift ideas were limited.
So I panicked and focused on finding any kind of perfect gift for the 30th.
Except it wasn’t the 30th. It was September 20th, and I’d somehow forgotten his birthday just two days after we started dating. Someone told me the morning of the 20th — after I’d already spent time with him with no mention of a birthday — and I insisted the date was the 30th. I was met with a blank stare.
His birthday was the 20th. Instead of admitting I’d forgotten, I stubbornly pretended I’d purposely withheld it to surprise him. My “surprise” was a balloon tied to his door and a season of Entourage on DVD. What do you get a new boyfriend when you’ve barely started dating?
I still struggle with gifts because he seems to have everything and asks for things I can’t afford. So I usually make him food and give him little items he doesn’t need.
He loves chilled chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes, so I made cupcakes. While frosting, I asked, “You like banana bread, right?”
He said, “Ugh, no. I don’t like banana bread. I only like bananas when they’re green; banana bread has black bananas. Blech.”
That sounded familiar. Fail. Why do birthdays and I have such a rocky relationship?
Lucky for me, the cupcakes looked irresistible. After frosting and stashing them in the fridge, and after a movie night watching Straw Dogs (and indulging my Alexander Skarsgård crush), he opened the fridge and asked, “What the heck is in that container? I think I want one.”
I watched him eat four cupcakes over the sink with a can of Diet Coke. Apparently cupcakes have replaced chocolate chip cookies in his affections. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.
By the way, Mr. How Sweet actually has a name: Eddie (or Ed, which my dad prefers because it sounds more manly). I might still call him Mr. How Sweet sometimes, or Ed, or something else entirely, but I won’t call him late for dinner.
Brownie Banana Bread Cupcakes
20
cupcakes
Ingredients
Brownie Layer
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips, lightly tossed in flour
Cupcake Layer
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup melted butter
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3/4 cups butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
- 8 ounces (1 block) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups loosely packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Brownie Layer
-
Preheat oven to 350°F.
-
Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer until fluffy (3–4 minutes). Add egg and vanilla, mixing until combined. With the mixer on medium, add flour, salt and cocoa until just combined. Line a cupcake tin with liners and spoon about 1/2–3/4 tablespoon of brownie batter into each cup. Press down with the back of a spoon coated in non-stick spray.
Cupcake Layer
-
Whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. In another bowl, whisk the egg, then add brown sugar and vanilla until smooth. Stir in sour cream and melted butter. Add dry ingredients, then fold in mashed bananas. The batter will be thicker than typical cupcake batter. Using an ice cream scoop or 1/4-cup measure, spoon batter into liners on top of the brownie layer. Bake 15–18 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
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Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy, scraping the bowl occasionally. Add brown sugar and powdered sugar, starting on low and increasing to medium. Add vanilla. Beat 4–5 minutes on medium-high until very creamy. This frosting is not very stiff — frost right before serving or keep refrigerated until 30 minutes before serving.
Notes
*Yeah… I desperately need new material.