Today is a big day.  The youngest is now 4.  “Even my shadow is bigger,” he says.  There are crayon-streaked cards, homemade gifts wrapped in the lopsided way that kids perfect, and a morning of singing.  Tonight he gets to choose the birthday dinner and, of course, the dessert.

In process:

Does he know that the Cookie Cake is whole wheat?  I guess so.  Does he care?  Not really.

This recipe has followed that lovely path that recipes take from one place to the next, changing as each set of hands finds it.  Heidi Swanson at 101cookbooks made a divine skillet cookie based on Good to the Grain‘s recipe.  I’ve made that for my younger brother and his wife twice (both before and after the delivery of their 2nd child) and it is great.  For Will’s birthday, though, he was concerned that “a cookie isn’t really a cake.”  So I made it more cake-like.  And healthier, by leaving out an entire stick of butter.  I also can’t be bothered to sift and do all the stuff bakers do.  I’m a throw it together and hope it sticks kind of person.