cake and presents

What is better than cake and presents? My husband just had his 29th birthday, getting up there! The big 3-0 next year. 

I love surprises, always have and always hope to be surprised (although I typically ruin surprises for myself). My husband on the other hand, is not so thrilled with surprises. I once threw him a surprise going away party with our friends in Athens, GA before he was headed back home to Australia for summer, and he was not amused. He was of course a good sport and went along with it, but I now know not to plan any more surprise parties for husband ; )

I did still want to surprise him when he woke up on his birthday with his big gift. We had been talking about getting a big flat screen t.v. since we moved into our new place. Our little 22" wasn't cutting it and we love to watch movies. We spent lots of time looking at t.v.'s at Best Buy (Tommy's favorite place), and narrowed it down to a few we liked. I went back and got one while he was off training in LA, stored it at a friends house, and woke up before he did on his bday to get the t.v. all set up. I wish I had some photos of me trying to haul it in the house, not an easy task! 

the big t.v. all set up ready for the surprise

He was surprised! I tried to get a video of him coming into the room and seeing the t.v. but he walked right in front of the video and all you can see is his shirt (oh well).

Now for cake! My mom always made us this delicious pizza cake for our birthday's growing up, and Tommy requested it. It was my first time making it and was fairly easy (this coming from a girl who is not a very good cook). 

desert pizza cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour

2 cups mini marsh mellows

1 cup chocolate chips

M&M (or your favorite candy to top it off)

Preheat oven to 375 F/190 C

In a bowl, combine sugars, butters, vanilla and eggs (mix well)

Spoon the flour and gradually stir into the wet ingredients until a dough forms

Press dough into a round 12 or 14 inch pizza pan (I used square because I didn't have round)

Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown

Take out and sprinkle with toppings, bake another 10 minutes or until marsh mellows begin to puff up and brown. 

Let cool and enjoy! 

(disclaimer-this is not a healthy cake recipe, but who are we kidding, aren't you supposed to indulge on your birthday, your husbands birthday, your friends birthdays...)

We braved the snow (it doesn't faze anyone here in SLC) and had a delicious birthday dinner at Vinto's. They have amazing wood fired pizza's, then enjoyed some wine and pizza cake back at home with some friends. Perfect end to a successful birthday!

snow on our way to tommy's birthday dinner with friends