{ surprise! }

This past weekend we threw a surprise 40th birthday party for our friend Dan. I haven't ever been "in" on a surprise party but Deborah and I managed to plan and execute it without him knowing a thing. It helps that he doesn't tend to think much about details (but hey, what guy does right?!).

We hosted the party here at our house and the fake plan was that Deborah and Dan were coming over and we were going to walk to dinner at a nearby restaurant. Most of the food was catered in but I did volunteer to make the big birthday cake. I picked a chocolate angel food cake recipe that is the family recipe of my sister in law. I was terrified to make it, as I didn't want to mess it up! She can vouch for that based on the fact that I sent her multiples texts with questions/clarifications on the recipe.

There was a lot of seperating egg whites.

Followed by the trickiness of whipping the end whites until stiff (I had help watching to make sure I didn't whip them too much).

And then the most terrifying part, tipping the cake pan upside down on a wine bottle to cool. I thought it would fall out. It didn't. Whew.

The cake didn't disappoint and tasted amazing!

Back to the party.......he was VERY surprised.

Like speechless, mouth hanging open, complete shock.

Happy 40th Birthday, "Professa" Dan!