Surprise!

[kerravonsen]

Well, I had a very pleasant surprise tonight: I thought I was just going over to Mum & Dad's to have a quiet dinner for my birthday (with an addition of my two aunts) and I arrived to find not only them, but my brother's family as well, all singing happy birthday at me! A party! With a snowlog! Done as a big 40!

Techinically, I think this counts as a surprise party, which means I've finally had one! One of my life goals ticked off.

It was nice.

Comments

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Wonderful. Congratulations. What a nice family

[kerravonsen]

Oh yeah. I have the bestest family in the world! 8-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Lovely. And a very happy birthday :-)

[kerravonsen]

Thanks. 8-)

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Yay! How wonderful. :)

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You used my icon! :-D

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwww! That's lovely! Having a surprise party is one of my goals, too, but as I'm horribly difficult to surprise, I'm not attached to it. :)

Happy Birthday!!

[kerravonsen]

My problem was that, it's a bit hard to say "I want a surprise party" because then, as you say, one will be difficult to surprise.

I think they did it because I've been stressing out about my 40th, because things got delayed, I couldn't (and still can't) track down certain people I wanted to invite, I wanted to be able to enjoy it without having to run around and Be Hostess, which meant I needed an assistant, but my niece was busy; and almost everyone I mentioned the party to couldn't come, even though it's supposed to be just a relaxed At Home thing with no particular Time of Arrival.

My family are good. 8-)

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

Your family are VERY good. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

So a snowlog is a white chocolate or maybe coconut log? Eep!

How very cool! I've never had a surprise party but I did get surprise tiger cub feeding this year. :-D I'm so glad you had a great day.

[kerravonsen]

You may know snowlog as "chocolate ripple cake", but when I were a child we were in the USA and there it's called "snowlog" and I think it is a much more picturesque name, and thus the name I prefer.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Um ... still no wiser. Something spongy and very sweet? :-P

[kerravonsen]

Okay, I am about to introduce you to the easiest yummy dessert in the world.

Take a packet of plain chocolate biscuits. In Australia they are actually called "chocolate ripple biscuits". They are simple chocolate-flavoured biscuits, not chocolate-coated. Similar to the "cookie" part of Oreo cookies, only larger.

Take some cream, and whip it. If you want to add sugar and flavour to the cream you can. Or not. I usually don't. Or maybe only a little sugar.

Take a flat tray or a very flat platter, and optionally cover it with foil. And clear a space in your refridgerator for said tray (and see if you can get a cover for it, or make sure that there isn't anything really smelly in your fridge).

Now, you have your tray, the biscuits, and the cream. Take a biscuit, and slather cream on one side. Take another biscuit, and do the same. Sandwich the biscuits together. Keep on doing that until enough biscuits are stuck together to be able to tilt them sideways on the tray so that they stand up supporting each other, so you have a cylinder on its side. (Like a log)

Keep on adding biscuits to the log, so that they are all stuck together with cream. When you've done enough, coat the outside with cream, so that all you see is cream, not biscuit. Like a log covered entirely with snow. (Snow-log!)

Put the tray in the 'fridge overnight (or all day if you did it early in the morning). This allows the cream to soften the biscuits to a cake-like consistency.

Pull out the tray, put on the dinner table, and cut in diagonal slices, so that you get a stripy cake, alternating chocolate "cake" and and cream (hence, "chocolate ripple cake").

Variations:
- some people soak the biscuits in sherry or something like that. I never have.
- decorate with chocolate curls or sprinkles
- make the outside cream coating be chocolate-flavoured or mocha etc
- use gingernut cookies to make a ginger-ripple-cake; I think the chocolate is nicer though.

The simplest shape is a log, but since one is building it up oneself, one can turn the biscuits slightly, or put multiple logs together to make a shape, which is how they made one shaped like a 4-0 for me.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Hah! I've done that, but it was called 'decadent dessert'. I used chocolate chip biscuits soaked in sherry or orange juice. It was very successful too. :-D

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Another nice variation is ginernuts but you have to soak them longer. :-)