Hubby's Happy Birthday

In December, Hubs had a birthday.

I won't tell you how old he is.

But I will tell you that I am much much younger than him.

He has a niece who happens to also be one of my very dearest bestest friends. It's nice when life gives you one of those great life long gifts - I'm guaranteed to have a best friend for the rest of my life cuz we are FAMILY. How cool is that? Anyway, she is studying to be a bakery chef expert. I know she has a fancy special name for what she is doing but I can't recall it.

But, really, all you need to know is that if it is a dessert, she can make it. She can create something just from the flavors you like. And she can make it look like such a work of art you don't want to eat it. But you will. And it will melt in your mouth in you will roll your eyes in the back of your head and wonder how anyone can create such luscious food.

Brownies in a box just don't seem to cut it anymore.

BUT, it is so nice to hear her say "Oh, I'll bring the dessert for the family dinner." Bless you.

A long long time ago, when the weather was nice and lovely, she made a John Deere cake for her son's birthday. Hubs seen it and thought it was just the cutest cake ever.

She didn't forget that.

So when his birthday got closer and closer, she and I began to scheme more and more. The plan was...I would meet her somewhere so we could

A. talk

B. get caffeinated

C. oh yah, pick up the cake

We had texts flying back and forth to each other.

On the day of his birthday, he had to plow. This would be perfect for our cover if the roads were going to behave.

We picked out our meeting time and place.

Which was tricky because I had to rush back to the school to make gingerbread houses with S3. Tis (was) the season at the time of his birthday.

But then Jake showed up early, his plowing done, which is GREAT for his birthday but not so great when you are planning on sneaking away to get a cake. He never batted an eye when I said I'd have lunch with An. That meant he was exhausted. Which helped our scheme.

And then An called to say that the school had called and her little guy (she has three little guys and one big guy ;) ) was sick at school and she needed to pick him up.

Our plans were disintegrating quickly.

She was determined to get the cake to me, hours of preparing it and the lack of sleep she had gotten from making the cake were beginning to make her "the cake IS getting to you" more forceful.

The problem that was glaring at us mostly was the fact that we are 45 minutes away from each other on a nice summer day. Winter and the boys getting out of school and a sick child and gingerbread making were not making this easier.

But a truly daring, totally insane plan began to take place.

Hubs decided he wanted pizza from Papa Murphy's. I don't know where any Papa Murphy's are, as Jake always picks them up, but I suddenly got REAL interested. When I knew where we were headed, I got in touch with An who figured out how long it would take for her to get there.

And how long it would take for me to get there.

And we planned to surprise him there.

In the parking lot.

In a last ditch effort to make sure he got his surprise birthday cake.

I was a nervous wreck trying to be sweet and kind and loving as I watched the clock like a hawk and to make sure we left at the correct time.

I let S1 in on the plan. He was to claim he was starving to get us moving along a bit faster if need be. It would be believable, since he always is starving....

With my phone on silent, An and I kept in somewhat contact.

And it was no small miracle that as we walked in to order our pizza, she walked in behind us with her Uncle Jake's birthday cake.

The look on his face was priceless.

He was shocked to say the very very very very very least.

When we brought it home, after the pizza, we uncovered the cake just to look at it's beauty.

The white cake had a chocolate ganache filling. The frosting literally melted in your mouth - and I am not a big frosting fan. The tires were ALL made with chocolate, solid chocolate people.

As was the trailer. Which was covered with "seed" or shaved hazelnuts. Jake quickly claimed the whole trailer of the cake as his own. He was the birthday boy, he could. All night long, as we ummed and ooohed over the cake, Jake just kept chucking over everything that An and I had done to pull off this surprise.

It was worth it.

Thank so much, An. You totally rock.