An 18th Birthday Surprise

Over this past winter break of my sophomore year at KU, a good friend of mine turned 18. We decided to surprise her by blindfolding her, kidnapping her, making her think she was in a car with a bunch of street thugs attempting a drug deal, and then finally leading her back to my house where a classic, wholesome birthday surprise party was held. Pretty normal, right? I mean whatever. I can't say I hated this idea, and I take most credit. While I won't go into detail about the first three steps in pulling off this giant shenanigan, I would like to tell you about the main attraction of sweets and eatery-- the cake!

I used a Betty Crocker Moist Lemon Cake mix from a box, Abby's favorite flavor (who has time to make cakes from scratch? Also, I don't own a sifter. It's right up there on my "things to buy after college graduation list", probably somewhere in between deep fat fryer and an iron.) I baked two 8" rounds, both came out domed at the top, which posed a problem for icing. I shaved off the top of one to be able to stack them on top of each other, flat bottom onto shaved top. I kept the dome on the top one, because I thought it may turn out alright, also, I didn't want to waste anymore CAKE, duh!

The icing is a simple mixture my mom taught me just off the top of her head, no recipe card needed at all (what that woman has stored in her mind I'm continuously in awe of, I mean, was it not hip in her day to write things down? how does she remember all this??).
A whole can of shortening
At least a cup of powdered sugar, depending on how much you're making
Water to moisten, NOT too much
Food coloring if desired

This frosting is not only pretty tasty, but very stiff and perfect for icing! Here is the finished product!



I may have put too much frosting in between the layers. SCRATCH THAT, no such thing, am I right??













And of course, I know you wanted to see her surprised face after the kidnapping occurred, before cake went into bellies. Please take note of the scary looking men who drove her around for 30 minutes and made sweet, precious, innocent Abby listen to dirty gangsta rap. We really threw her for a loop, let me tell ya!

*note: these boys are all of quality and would never, I repeat NEVER, actually harm someone or participate in drug/gang activity. I trusted them completely with Abby's 18 years of life.









I'm so excited to be able to dig further into the depths of random kitchens (and lets be honest, really to just have a kitchen of my own) and see what other fun baking journeys I can get myself into. I must say, this one was one of the most memorable, and I hoped everyone involved had as much fun as I did!