Hi Hivers Tuesday night we were celebrating another year of my next door neighbor's life. It is with them that I have created a bond of friendship since we moved into our current home three years ago.

They are honest, hard-working, helpful, collaborative, cheerful and other qualities. The trust is mutual and it is for that reason that we often share everything from afternoon coffee to birthdays. For the occasion, they had nothing planned because it was a weekday, but what they were sure of was that the birthday boy would blow out the candles and make a wish.

It was about 10:30 am and my neighbor sent me a message to ask me if I had a roll of wick to lend her, when I approached to give it to her she invited me in to show me what she was cooking...Hallacas uhmmm what a delight, that's what the wick was for.

Hallaca is the typical dish we serve in Venezuela for the Christmas season, each region has its own style of preparation, but in general it is based on a stew of beef, pork and chicken with olives, capers and raisins, placed on a dough of pre-cooked corn flour seasoned and dyed yellow, wrapped in banana leaves, tied with wick and steamed.

Delicious...

After congratulating the birthday boy who had not left for work, I was invited to taste the hallacas and sing birthday. As soon as I returned home I informed my husband of the event and in the afternoon we went out to buy a bottle of sangria.

At 6:30 pm we were knocking on the door, after drinking and chatting for a while we went to the kitchen to eat the hallacas just finished cooking. They were so good that we all repeated, we ate two hallacas each one of us except the two children nephews of the birthday boy.

With our bellies full we continued drinking sangria and at 10:00 pm we sang birthday. There were two cakes. There was really no room left in my stomach to eat the whole dessert. With the trust we have in each other I told my neighbor that I would rather finish it the next day, I only tasted a little and my husband the same.

Aside from the fullness, I wanted to accompany the cake with a cup of coffee with milk hahaha. I had the next day's snack figured out and so I did.

Yesterday Wednesday afternoon I reminded my husband about the cake that was in the fridge. I paused my activity and went to the kitchen to prepare the latte for the snack. I have heard on more than one birthday when someone jokes, but deep down it is true, that they would like a cup of coffee along with the cake. Then there are those who say "Drunk don't eat sweet" and prefer the to-go portion.

After having the black coffee ready, add milk, sugar and a touch of cocoa directly into the coffee pot. With a hand mixer, blend all the ingredients until a frothy coffee with milk is obtained.

I returned the carafe to the coffee pot to keep the coffee hot while I served the cakes on the plates. I prefer hot coffee even if I have to wait a little bit to start drinking than to taste cold coffee, I think I inherited that from my mother, although she goes to the extreme of hot.

I did not have to insist with my husband to leave his job for a while, when he felt the aroma of coffee coming from the kitchen he asked, "Shall we have coffee? Then he heard the sound in the kitchen of the glass pitcher with the stainless steel whisk and came over, this time to ask how much time was left and if he would help me prepare the table.

I tried to serve the cakes as nicely as possible, although I know I didn't get a magazine presentation, I think it was the way they were chopped. After two bottles of sangria, the pulse is not quite right.

We took our seats at our fixed stations and began by tasting the coffee, with the temperature and ingredients just right, I dare say it was exquisite. As the cups I used were not the big ones (these cups were given to me by my mother-in-law and are not one of my favorites), we had to serve the drink a second time.

The cakes were tasty, two different styles. One was chocolate and vanilla with chocolate frosting and the other was filled with chocolate chips and strawberry syrup.

A delicious snack to go with the best drink...Coffee.

That's all for today, I hope you like my content.

I say goodbye wishing you good vibes💞

The photos are my own and the templates were made in Canva with the free version.