Today, December 19, is Scott’s birthday. I did not bake my dear husband a cake.
It’s too hot here to turn on the oven.
Melting chocolate happens…
…without turning on the oven.
No need to exacerbate it by baking a cake and running the oven for an hour.
Instead he got Ho Hos made in a local Aruba bakery topped with homemade cream cheese frosting. I was able to handle whipping up some frosting.
Because I knew that Skylar would get many more thrills out of Ho Hos with a candle than Scott would, I made sure she had a candle to blow out.
At age four she’s still not quite familiar with the concept that you keep your wishes to yourself and as she was blowing out her candle she yelled,
“Make a wish! I wish that I blow this candle out.”
And I thought to myself, good wish kiddo because this kitchen is already hot enough and the sooner you blow the candle out, the sooner temperatures fall.
Down from about 87F to 80F would be lovely in the kitchen.
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Ho Hos with Cream Cheese Frosting
For the Ho Hos, I suggest:
Babble’s Homemade Ho Hos recipe
Joy the Baker’s Chocolate Peppermint Roll
Purchasing Ho Hos (nothing wrong with that, they’ve been around since 1967 and Hostess knows what they’re doing)
For the cream cheese frosting (Gluten Free with Vegan option)
1.5 tbsp butter (or margarine), softened
1.5 tbsp cream cheese (Philly brand, Tofutti, etc.) softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c + powdered/confectioner’s sugar
Directions: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whip vigorously by hand until smooth. Adjust the amount of confectioner’s sugar based on how thick or thin (more like a glaze) you prefer your frosting. We like ours very thick and so I used almost 1 cup powdered sugar. Store extra frosting in the refrigerator or freezer.
Yields about 3/4 c frosting
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One tip if you don’t want to bother with a roll-up style dessert like Ho Hos because although they’re pretty they’re fussy would be to make Fudgy Nutella Brownies with Cream Cheese Frosting.
They accomplish nearly the same flavor goal but in a flat format that’s much easier to tackle. Just a suggestion if you don’t feel like wrappin’ and rollin’.
After we were done with our Ho Hos we washed our hands thoroughly so that we didn’t get crumbs in our eyes.
Or cream cheese frosting in our hair.
Then we sang Happy Birthday with extra loud and screaming emphasis on the, Happy Birthday DEAR DADDY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU part.
Nothing about this birthday was traditional starting with Skylar having a candle and blowing out her candle and stating her wish aloud.
To singing Happy Birthday after the birthday cake birthday ho hos were already eaten to…
Not serving a cake…
To not making something entirely from scratch.
But Scott didn’t seem to mind.
He said he loved the Ho Hos and that the frosting was delicious.
The best part, in fact, he said was the frosting.
Clearly he’s been hanging around me for over a decade if now he’s using cake as an excuse just to get to the frosting. Ironically we had our 10 year anniversary the last time we were in Aruba.
The birthday ho hos are a step up from his birthday last year, albeit marginally. It’s the thought that counts, right?
Happy Birthday, Scott!
Questions:
How traditional are you when it comes to birthdays?
We are so nontraditional. Scott’s birthday usually falls over Chanukah and so it gets lost in that shuffle.
Plus, we are usually traveling and out of the country in December.
We also don’t exchange birthday gifts, or Chanukah, Christmas, anniversary, or other gifts anymore, either. We buy what we need throughout the year and have given up doing gifts.
Do you have any special birthday memories?
I have so many birthday party memories from my childhood from roller skating parties with pizza, RC cola, and white sheet cakes with pink frosting roses (I loved the pieces of cake that had the thickest and most frosting) to having all my friends over for slumber-birthday parties to my pre-Skylar birthdays which involved copious amounts of alcohol and lasted until the wee hours of the morning.
Ahh, memories.
He doesn’t read my blog but I’ll show him this post…Happy Birthday, Scott!
Happy Birthday to Scott!
I couldn’t care less about cake on my birthday … no big birthday traditions for me, although when we have kids I am sure we will start some for them.
Double love!!! And Happy Birthday to Scott:-)
That looks like more than a thought to me! Gorgeous dessert … and yes, the frosting is ALWAYS the best part. Happy belated birthday to Scott!
I love how creative this is – I totally feel you too – I don’t bake all summer long because of how it heats up my tiny apartment!
We’re pretty traditional with birthdays in my family – as traditional as one can be, I suppose, since everyone does something a little different. My next birthday will be my first gluten-free one, so I think that will be our first non-traditional one since most of my favorite foods are now out!
Definitely not traditional, spending time with the ones you love, family and friends, and doing the things you love to do is so important and for me that’s what birthdays are about!
I absolutely love how you turned his birthday on your vacation into a very special one. And Skylar’s emphasis on “Happy Birthday Daddy” – I LOVE IT! It makes me smile!!
You rock Averie, I love your homemaker skills :-)
This is actually the first year Aubrey and I pretty much stopped doing presents. Whenever we need something we just find the funds to get it. Although, for my birthday we did take a trip to Vegas and considered it to partly celebrate our 5-year wedding anniversary too. It was a blast and way more fun than buying any particular presents would have been.
My farking birthday was so often on PASSOVER that I often got an ice cream cake or pavlova or pudding or some other lame-o excuse of a cake.
Now I crave pavlova on my birthday.
Happy Hanukkah!!!
happy chanukah (and bday) to you too!
aww looks like such a fun birthday. I can imagine the heat in your house must be out of control. Praise the lord for no bake desserts! And I would happily have packaged cake desserts for any birthday (or any day for that matter!)
Happy Birthday Scott! I share the whole “my birthday usually coincides with Hanukkah” conundrum, as my birthday is Dec 18th. I solved this my telling my family if they didn’t celebrate my birthday separately from the holiday, I wouldn’t celebrate theirs separately either. It worked wonders! Lol.
The ho ho’s with icing look delish- in my opinion, icing makes everything better (like apples for instance! or french toast. I am sure it would work on celery too, LOL. But I don’t discriminate, RIGHT OFF THE SPOON is the BEST).
I know its several hours early, but Happy Hanukkah! (just pretend its sundown already)
happy chanukah and bday to you too!
icing is always better right off the spoon, agreed :)
Happy birthday to Scott! What a fun birthday cake :) I haven’t had a hoho in long time, but now I want to go out and buy some!
Hey Averie! Kids and I bought a donut pan for an upcoming sleepover this week. Give me your best donut recipe!
xoxo,
Jackie
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/recipes/desserts
go to the section “Donuts”
and there are 4 sweet ones that you can’t go wrong with
vanilla, i.e. krispy kreme,
choc/pb
cinnabon/cinn roll
etc…
Thanks so much girl :)
happy birthday to Scott! I was just reading through some of your old posts-crazy stories!-and saw that Scott is 17 years older than you. I was just wondering how that works out for you with friends. I mean, my boyfriends mom is about 55 and his dad is almost 81 (my bf is 27 but his youngest brother is 22!) I just dont understand how his parents were attracted to each other-well basically mean how was his mom attracted to his dad! and also, did her friends really want to hang out with an old man!? i believe in love and when you find it you find it, but i wonder if she wishes now that she hadnt married someone so much older. shes young and active but her husband just had a hip replacement and a stroke and is basically homebound. i feel for my bf and his siblings…just wondering how it all works out.
happy birthday to him! and i lovee stuff like that at my job it was a busy day and they bought me just a peanut butter cupcake (my fav) with a candle and i thought it was the best thing ever!
HoHos sounds good to me!
Happy Birthday to Scott!!! Beautiful pictures, Averie!