King Salmon for Our Little King

Our baby boy turned one yesterday. I can hardly believe it. The past year flew by, which I know is a cliché, and I’ve lost count of the number of people who told it to us, but still, it’s true. He is the joy of our lives. He is sweet, affectionate, clever, and courageous. He claps, dances, toddles, and plays. He has a fantastic appetite. We love him so very much.

For his first birthday, I set out to bake him a little cake with all his favorite sweet flavors (cream, raspberries, clementines), plus a few new ones too. I came up with a recipe for clementine-vanilla cupcakes topped with a cloud of whipped cream and a single, perfect berry. But then, when I went to go bake these dream cupcakes, I realized we didn’t have enough flour or baking powder, and there were only two paper cupcake liners left in the box! Also, the birthday candles I swore were in the hall closet could not be found.

I tried improvising (using a 6-inch cake pan, substituting different flour, unsuccessfully trying to let go of my vision of Arthur blowing out candles) and it was a total disaster. All I could do was laugh—a cookbook author who can’t manage to make a proper cake for her son’s first birthday! So, I swallowed my pride and decided to follow someone else’s reliable recipe. And I went to the grocery store to buy candles.

For dinner, we slow-roasted king salmon for our little king. The recipe is here!