just for you

We just found out that my aunt (my dad's half sister who has lived with my parents since before I was born, and played a huge role in raising me and my sister when my parents were at work) has cancer. She's still got plenty of doctor appointments coming up to determine a course of action, so we're hopeful there are options. It's kind of an emotional hazard to speculate too much, so I'm trying to shut my brain off until I hear something concrete.

Anyway. This post was not meant to bring anyone down. It's really meant to celebrate. And be a submission to my first-ever food blog event, Sugar High Friday #41: Sweet Gifts, hosted by Danielle at Habeas Brulee.

My sister and I visited my parents two weeks ago to have lunch with Dad for his birthday. My sister and I had discussed previously if we should be bringing anything, but Dad usually picks out his own birthday cake, so we didn't.

Of course, that meant that when we got home, there was no cake to be found. The whole lunch was kind of a downer - Aunt had just gotten back from a week-long hospitalization that was filled with tests and no answers, and the not knowing added to all of the frequent trips to doctors' offices got to be really wearying. Dad even said up-front that this wasn't going to be a very cheerful birthday because he was too worried.

So sad. My sister and I went home again today to visit with Aunt and have lunch with my parents, so I brought this White Chocolate Irish Cream Marbled Loaf as a belated birthday cake. I didn't swirl it because the parentals are not the biggest fans of chocolate (they'll have it every now and then, but mostly when it's around macadamia nuts), so I wanted to give them the option of just eating the top half of the slice if they were so inclined. Also, it reminded me of my childhood when, very mysteriously, our cartons of Neopolitan ice cream would always empty strawberry and vanilla first. I never found out who did it, but I never investigated very thoroughly as I was happy as can be to be doing the fam a "favor" by cleaning out the chocolate ice cream. :)

Anyway, everyone loved this cake. I've recently come around to white chocolate, which I mainly credit to the awesome white chocolate gelato variations at Pazzo Gelato. That half of the cake was impossibly creamy and wonderful. That's not to say the chocolate half wasn't equally great. I was planning on using Bailey's, but I thankfully noticed just in the nick of time that our particular bottle had expired last October, so I went with the Kahlua. I may add more next time because I couldn't really taste it (especially smothered in vanilla ice cream :P).