surprise birthday cakes and cookies.

Myra, one of the SOs here, is turning 23 on Thursday and happened to mention this on Monday. She said that she would be at the pool buying a drink and was wondering if we were going to be coming to the pool on Thursday as well. That got us thinking - we know that her husband has a full day of classes, and obviously, she is planning on celebrating on her own, so we wanted to make sure her day was semi-birthday eventful and celebratory. We don't know her very well, but we do know that she taught as a music teacher before moving here. SO, we are making a music note cake :)

Currently, the cakes are in the freezer so we can cut it well tomorrow and ice it with chocolate icing :)
Jessie is holding the bottom part of the cake, and it looks like Marieke is eating a bit of the other cake out of the freezer.
Yup, tisk tisk. It's ok though, we are cutting the music note out of that one :)
I will post the final product/Myra's reaction [hopefully] after Thursday.

Later, after dinner and before he jetted off to campus to study, J mentioned that he would *like* to see more cookies in the house, you know...maybe ;) Hmmm, really?? [all the pumpkin ones are gone, but we DID split them with Marieke and Ryan :) ] Sooo...I looked up recipes for brown sugar cookies, because that is the only sugar we have in the house. Oh, and we ran out of eggs earlier today, too. Dilemma? Never fear, the internet is here.
If you find yourself without normal sugar or eggs, the recipe for all such situations is here!

• 1/2 cup butter [I used 1/4 cup, I always cut butter/oil :)]
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs [see egg substitute below - it worked!!]
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups flour [I did 1.5 white flour, .5 whole wheat]
• dash salt

Prep:
Cream butter and sugar together until light; add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Dissolve soda in milk; add flour, salt and walnuts. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto a lightly greased baking sheet.
Bake at 375° for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Egg substitute:
1 whole egg = 2 tbsp water and 1 tbsp oil and 2 tsp baking powder.

Looks good, no? Tastes good, too!
The little plate I have strategically placed in line of sight from the front door :) Excited for him to find it!!

Hope everyone is having a great night! Much love.