Surprise!!!

First of all, let me show you a cake my sister-in-law Niki made(sorry the camera quality isn't better):

This is the story behind the cake:

Stef is our friend at church-she is our choir director, and is very musically talented.  Stef's one glitch in life is that she never remembers how old she is.

So!

Since her birthday is at the end of October, friends decided to throw a 40th birthday party for Stef after our church service.  Stef just turned 38.

She caught on, and informed us, "I don't know how old I am, but I am NOT 40!"  I think she will probably remember her age now.  =)

The musical notes spell out the first line of the song Happy Birthday to You....

The balls you see are Truffles, which Stef loves.  Niki even made the musical note circles out of Truffles.

Isn't it adorable???

Anyway!

On to MY "Surprise" post!

Amber's birthday was October 23rd, and if you read my FAIL post, I forgot my dear daughter's 16th birthday.  Can you say HEEL!!!  ???

I felt terrible about this, and wanted to make it up to her-she was SO looking forward to turning 16.  Please don't ask-I don't know where my mind is half the time anymore!

So!  Aunt Niki had Amber come over and help with some things yesterday, and I decorated the house with balloons and streamers, and invited lots of friends over for a surprise party for Amber.  Amber accidentally saw a text on my phone about the party, but that's ok-she didn't know it was last night, and it was still all good.

Lots of friends showed up, and we had a nice time!  Amber had a very nice evening, and it made up for my previous FAIL as a mother.

I made monster hot dogs and sloppy joes, and I made two cakes.  This is the important part of the post!

I started out with three cake mixes, and I'm telling you, it wasn't my fault that I accidentally added 1 and 1/3 cups of oil instead of 1 and 1/3 cups of water!  The faucet and oil bottle played some horrible trick on me!  It was making me half sick just THINKING about eating all that oil!  That batch of batter went in the trash.

I made the other two cakes, one chocolate, one yellow, and they turned out fine.

I don't want to intimidate my sweet sister-in-law Niki by showing pictures of my two cakes.  I mean, she does a pretty good job with her stuff, but, well, I've decided to just be modest about my own creations and tell you about the cakes I decorated.

First of all, if you were AT the party, I need to make sure you know the FACTS!

1. I had chocolate crumbs all through the white frosting on the chocolate cake BECAUSE I wanted everyone to know that cake was chocolate!
2. I did NOT have to add that glorious vanilla/chocolate marbled design to the vanilla cake because I ran out of vanilla frosting.  I wanted those "Well, that's actually kinda cool" comments!
3. I don't care if you DID glance in the dining room while I was dividing up the cake-when I took the saran wrap off, half the icing topping was SUPPOSED to stay on the wrap-I didn't want the plastic wrap to harm the cake!  The icing did it's job!
4. The cake did NOT crumble while I was cutting it with my big knife, and I was NOT too lazy to go get something smaller to cut it with!  The cake was just so moist that it could be described as "melt in your mouth" yummy, even tho it hadn't made it to your mouth yet.

So please!  No need to spread rumors about my cake fail-and FOR SURE don't tell Niki!  =)

Anyway!  For those of you who weren't at the party, when the guests viewed my cakes-the marbled effect on the vanilla cake, and the speckled design in the vanilla frosting on the chocolate cake-the room was enveloped in a silent, reverant awe.

(And by the way, friends--I don't hold it against you that you didn't drown me with compliments at the party.  I realize my skills are so far out of this world that they often render people speechless.)  =)