Best birthday cake for your best friend

This bunny cake made my birthday very special. Even our dog was mildly excited. BTW...this was a couple of years ago.  No Instagram filters needed.

Cake isn't just dessert. It often marks passages in life: birthdays, weddings, celebrations of all kinds. An edible gesture in which the medium is a good part of the message.

When I was a kid, I used to look forward to my dad decorating our birthday cakes. My mom would whip one up and he would transform simple rounds or squares of chocolate or vanilla into animals, boats, all sorts of things. My dad is very creative -- a do-it-yourselfer. He made it look so easy. When I was 9 or so I tried to design and decorate my own birthday cake. My chocolate daisy with white, 7-minute frosting turned out horribly. But I gained even more respect for my dad.

When I was invited to Easter Dinner by my friends, Jill and Mike Killeen this year, I offered to bake a cake for dessert.  I've done a few since childhood.  They turn out better now.

Baking for Jill, however is a special task as she has a deadly nut allergy.  A trace of nut oil transferred to any part of the cake could send her to hospital. The process that ensures that won't happen begins with re-washing all of the utensils I plan to use, followed by a thorough scrub-down of all surfaces and handles. Once that's done, I can get on with the job.

I bake one day and decorate the next. It's labour intensive, but it's fun! I like doing it so much, I baked another cake to celebrate Jill Killeen and Jill Krop's birthdays recently. I made two, so the extra one went to Tamara who was celebrating her birthday on the same weekend as our dinner.

Rather than give you cake recipes, below is the pastry cream recipe and the decorating method for each. Use your favorite coconut or vanilla and/or chocolate cake recipes. Any vanilla cake with coconut extract should work fine. The lighter the better.