two buck Katy

Calla lilies, the traditional 6th wedding anniversary flowers,
started blooming in our yard a few weeks ago, no thanks to us. Sweet, huh?

I'm not sure why we didn't think to do this last year, since we were back in Oakland for our fifth year as married folks, but for our wedding anniversary this year, we decided to visit a few of the key locations of our wedding day six years ago, toddler in tow.

The ceremony took place right under this great, big oak tree.

First we frolicked around Joaquin Miller Park a bit, beginning with a visit to the Community Center before proceeding down the cascades area to the small playground just off Joaquin Miller Road.

I have to admit I was a little saddened by the state of the facilities and park.  Perhaps it's the time of year, as Neal suggested, warming up as it has rather suddenly after weeks of unprecedented rain.  Maybe things are only temporarily overgrown. Either way, the lovely wrap-around deck could definitely use a fresh coat of paint.

Before enjoying an early dinner at Cancun Taqueria in Berkeley (I can't believe they only get 3 1/2 stars!), who provided the yummy food for our wedding reception, we attempted to make a cake inspired by the delicious Erica Torte wedding cake we got from Katrina Rozelle.  Since we're on a limited budget, we agreed that spending thirty bucks on a six inch round was a little unreasonable.  Nothing quite compares but using cake and frosting mixes from Trader Joe's, we came up with a pretty tasty approximation. The KR website is lovely but pointless, with no descriptions of their cakes, cookies, no pricing info, nada.  Leave it to a Yelper to provide me with a description of the Erica Torte to jog my memory:

"Sublimely creamy milk chocolate caramel truffle filling layered between moist devil's food cake, finished in white chocolate buttercream and adorned with delicate piping work."

We used chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream frosting mixes (I'm already thinking about a redux via cupcakes whereby I will attempt a white chocolate buttercream frosting...oh yes, I will).

Yeah, okay, not nearly as pretty and no delicate chocolate piping but tasty.

For the filling we combined a jar of TJ's fleur de sel caramel sauce with a box of chocolate frosting mix. Yum.

Best part of the experiment, if I do say so myself. Nowhere near as good as the real thing but it'll do for now. We aspire to a day when we can afford cakes from Katrina Rozelle whenever we damn please.

Nom nom nom.

Oh, and by the way, while I don't know that I'd recommend Cancun Taqueria for catering an event such as a wedding, their food is so freakin' good. Hungry toddler approved as well.