This is my husband.  Well, this is him, 28 years ago.  He was such a cute baby.  He’s still pretty cute.

 

I can’t remember exactly when we met, we would just see each other around.  According to him it was when we were 16.  I was wearing a tube top.  Yikes.

 

We fell in love over our shared love of weird art.  We watched movies together and I took photographs.  Today was his birthday.  Most days when I ask what he wants to eat, he tells me “a snack feast”.  Of course I laugh while I make something healthy, usually involving a salad.

 

For his 30^th birthday I decided to give him what he asked for. 

 

A snack feast.

I had been planning this for quite some time, and it took me sooooo much self control not to say anything about what I was planning.  I’m pretty terrible at keeping surprises a secret.  I love planning them but then I always end up telling the person about it before hand because I get so excited.  This time I kept my mouth shut.

A few months ago, Joy the Baker put a recipe on her website I knew I had to make my husband for his birthday.  Every single thing about it oozed brilliance.  I’m fairly certain she was inside his brain when she dreamed this one up.  Chocolate cupcakes, with peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough in the center, topped with toasted marshmallow frosting.  Oh, my, God, these things are insane.  It’s like someone put a s’more and cookie dough and chocolate cake in one insane little package.  You would think these would be over the top, and to some extent they are, but they are also absolutely, positively perfect.  I almost can’t handle how good these are.  Go print this recipe.  Do it, make these cupcakes now.

Back to the snack feast.  It wasn’t only a snack feast, more like a day of eating.   A very late breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon and potatoes, then dinner included homemade cheese pizza and lasagna, two of his favorites. 

Then there were the homemade Oreo’s.  These served dual purpose, which I’ll get to later.  My husband has been known to buy a package of Oreo’s and eat the entire thing in one day.  This drives me insane.  Oreo’s are like the epitome of terrible foods.  Full of fat and preservatives it makes me cringe when he inhales so many at a time.  So I decided a while back I was going to learn how to make them, so that some day, I could get him to quit buying them.  I found this recipe, and it worked out pretty well.  The cookies have a very similar taste to the original, but the texture is slightly softer.  I don’t have a giant cookie press to get it right.  Oh well.  The cream in the center was pretty good as well.  After they harden up a bit, it really takes on the consistency of an actual Oreo.  They may not be exactly the same, but they are pretty close, and I’ll keep working to make them closer.

I believe I mentioned a dual purpose to these cookies. 

 

Dirt Cake.

 

This was something I learned was a favorite very early in my relationship with my husband.  I’ve been making it for him for years, often for his birthday or special occasions.  This time I made the whole thing from scratch.  No boxed pudding, no cool whip.  And homemade Oreo’s.  It was out of this world, outstanding good.  I could have probably sat there with a spoon and ate it for an hour.

 

I almost went into a food coma after all of this.  It was worth it.  I spent six hours cooking today and three last night, and I would do it for him every day if I could.  He’s my absolute favorite person in the whole world and makes my life worth it, even when things get tough.  Even though a birthday is a reminder that every year we are getting older, I like to spend birthdays doing something this over the top as a celebration of someone so special to me being born.  My husband is my world, what gets me through day by day, and I can only hope that by baking up something special, I can show him an ounce of how special he is to me.

 

Dirt Cake

Serves 8-10

 

         Ingredients

 

Approximately 32 Homemade Oreo’s, crushed

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 8 ounce package cream cheese

1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar

Homemade Vanilla Pudding1 1/2 cups heavy cream

 

           Directions

 

1.  In a mixer with the whisk attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until combined.  Add confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until combined.

 

2.  Slowly stream in 1/2 cup of heavy cream.  Increase speed to medium and beat until soft peaks form.  Transfer to another bowl.  Add cooled vanilla pudding and fold together. 

 

3.  Beat remaining cup of cream until stiff peaks form.  Fold into pudding mixture. 

 

4.  Starting with crushed cookies, layer cream and cookies evenly in a glass dish.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to six before serving.