Baking Journey: How to surprise a 90 year old with a birthday party

FIRST
It's practically impossible

BUT
Still worth the effort

See what I mean......

BUT SERIOUSLY

OK there is no seriously

Let me give you the short
Weeks in advance some of the family decided this 90 year thing was a big deal....a REALLY big deal. And so we made our feeble attempts at making plans.

However

Two brothers (that translates to two sister in laws) discuss the where's, when's, what's and so forth's. A building venue is chosen (we're talking country so who am I fooling) it's more like a community buiding near the water tower. We have them put us down on their books. And....
proceed to purchase a few decorations and supplies and bake a huge cake (2 -1/2 sheet pans) and cool and wrap and freeze the layers. Oh, did I fail to mention that we also helped to butcher a hog and make sausage? And baked 50 sugar free cupcakes... OOPS No more room in the freezer for sausage AND cake. So what do ya do? Well you load it all in an Igloo and haul it over to the birthday girl's freezer...one of four, I think.

Everyone is notified of day, place and time. All is going well!

The week of the party, she goes in for a routine check up. I take her. I really don't mind. That's what family does. When we get inside the exam room, the nurse says "I see you had a birthday...a BIG one. So...did you have a big party?" I sit with mouth closed. Mother just shrugs and calmly says "No" Nurse "oh". Doctor comes in and says the same thing. And asks pretty much the same questions and when Mother gave the same answer he just looked at me. Yep....daughter in law fail. I felt quite low...yep I did. BUT when he examined her and said "We need to schedule a heart cath and also take a look at the arteries in you legs AND when can you come in"....I swallowed the frog. I knew the party was in 3 days. But a blocked artery is more important than a party...isn't it? Now, let me cut this short. No one hit me on the head. She had the procedures on Thursday, she spent the night at hospital Friday. Party? No Party? Party at building? Party at house? Reschedule altogether? Hmm So we did the only sane thing. We let everyone know and moved the party to her new porch. And you would know....she woke up Saturday morning feeling grand and wondering if her sister was still coming to get her for "lunch" (that was the plan for surprise) But...we were committed! Daughter came and took her in town but got wires crossed on what time to have her back. Yep, they drove up just in time to see us close the car door to hide the cake. And we had to wing it all the rest of the way. Good thing she had to go to the bathroom :D for a few minutes.

Some of the family came early to "decorate" and pretty soon she knew something was up. Especially when she saw the "Happy Birthday" banners. Oh well. She thought it was just family. And then neighbors and friends came and we heard lots of laughter and chatter. We had lots of food....went to get more food and had food left over.

Was it a surprise....maybe not like we planned. It was for a very short time. But she was happy and feeling very blessed. And that's what really counts isn't it. More than 50 people came. It was a great day.

I had the privilege of baking and decorating the cake. The blog is entitled "Baking Journey"~ It's a 2 layer, Mexican vanilla butter half sheet cake with 4 fillings: chocolate creme, fresh strawberry creme, Mexican vanilla buttercream and lemon tart. The outside is cream cheese buttercream. The flowers are a combo of fondant daisies and handmade sugar /buttercream roses. She definitely was and is blessed beyond measure, has been known by many sweet names and is very much a Proverbs 31 woman!

~ Side note: Don't forget to think about family needs. Some may not be able to have all that sugar, so with all these new Sugar free cake mixes and frostings all you have to do to get matching flavors is add some Sugar Free Jello to SF vanilla icings like I did here for the pastry stand. Lemon SF Jello (but you have to add a touch of color gel), Strawberry SF Jello, Chocolate SF Instant Pudding and then good ol' vanilla just-as-it-is. It made for tasty flavors and several made sure I knew that. I added a touch of lavender to some of the white vanilla icing....just because. But people who have special dietary needs deserve to have a few items offered with them in mind. You may have some who are lactose intolerant, or Celiac with gluten off the menu (they now make GF cake mixes---or you can try to find the perfect combination yourself....I wish you well) and of course some with other allergies. Just make sure they have some things they can enjoy if you know they are coming and look at it as a piece of love and not a burden.

drinks

grandchildren

family

long time friends

food

Just party finger food...cocktail sausages, Swedish meatballs, chips and dip, fruit, veggie trays, cheese balls, cookies and sandwiches....and fried chicken- southern people love their yard bird! There probably was more...