The Oregon Ducks: Happy Birthday Elder Cooley 11-11-08

so as I mentioned above it was Elder Cooley's Birthday this week and Maliyah and I had a good time planning his Fiesta! WE chose a fiesta because of the Enchiladas....his moms recipe, and the Tre Leche cake, his request, which I will comment more on below!

We started off the evening with putting the enchiladas in the oven really late, so we did the fun stuff first! We played a questionnaire game first. I had asked his mom to send me all sorts of information about him and then him, Duck and the other Elder had to answer these questions and then of course we tried to see how they all matched up. It was pretty funny to hear some of the answers!

Then we opened presents. I had ones for both Elders and Maliyah was my big helper distributing them. They each got a light Saber....which they are crazy about (don't ask), missionary care kits with travel febreeze, sanitizer, tic tacs and a snack item. Then for Elder Cooley some Halloween socks, he loves crazy socks, and then a few other silly things to decorate their apartments. It was fun to see them both get excited even if they were silly gifts!

Dinner was awesome, and tasted way too good and then we did dessert.....but dessert has a story so I'm going to tell it below with the pictures.

Here is Maliyah all giddy because she loves parties!

Elder Burton and Elder Cooley

Duck being silly trying to find his hat!

Jade, after I let him go at it with his cake!

After dinner the missionaries, kids and Duck played with the light sabers. I looked over and saw that Elder Burton had helped Jade crawl up into Maliyah's toy stroller....soon he was getting pushed all over the place!

Kyson having his turn at the light saber.

OKay, now for the Cake Stories...

Elder Cooley requested Tre Leche cake. When he said that, I thought I'm not spanish, nor do I speak it and there is no way I'm even goign to remember how to say that long enough to find a recipe. But then he mentioned it again and said to email his mom for the recipe. Well she led me to the correct spelling and to look it up online. When I did was was overwhelmed by how huge this cake is! People ranting and raving about how fabulous is it and like it's the new tirimisu!! So I look at the recipe and just die. Like I gained 3 pounds just looking at the recipe, then I gained 5 more from making, it....and you can just imagine what happened when I ate it! It's drenched in Sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy whipping cream!! But it was his birthday so I consented. But then it reminded me of one of my favorite cakes.....despite my moms wishes we called it Better Than Sex Cake. Instead of Yellow Cake, chocolate, instead of 3 milks, caramel and sweetened condensed and instead of fattening whipped topping we make it with cool whip, then top with broken candy bar. So, I decided to do half recipes of both. It took longer than I cared for, but fun to try a new recipe. Below are pictures of my two cakes and if you want the recipes, just click on the titles and they will take you to my Sister-in-Laws recipe blog where I will post them as well.

Needless to say though, both cakes were a hit and I was smart to send all the leftovers with the missionaries. (and I really don't think I will EVER make Tre Leche again!)

Tre Leche Cake, topped with Kiwi slices and a marachino cherry!