Today we mark the 2nd anniversary of when the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic. Hooray?

To celebrate, we made a Coronavirus Birthday Cake. Originally it was going to be a hemisphere with candles sticking out all over, but due to time constraints and the fact the first two layers turned out so perfect it seemed a shame to mess up, we transitioned to just a regular layer cake:

It’s a lemon poppyseed cake with lemon cream cheese frosting. The poppyseeds were perfect little coronaviruses.

I have to say, it’s the best cake we ever made. Mom baked the crumb and I made the frosting and frosted it. It’s so lemony and bright, with a tiny poppyseed crunch; the crumb is perfectly soft and moist, and the frosting is zesty but sweet…

I love lemon desserts the best of all, and this is a great one. Next time maybe some lemon curd in the middle too, but otherwise, a delight.

I think we’ve started a new March 11 tradition. Happy Pandemic Day!