Happy Birthday and we love you, Carrie

Our first daughter Carrie's birthday was this Easter Sunday. We love and enjoy her so much. Thankfully she and Matt and their four children live close by. What is Carrie like - most importantly she's a wonderful wife and mother, focused on her family, always planning some fun activity or outing for them, reading to them, teaching them some new thing. She's bright and articulate, a BYU business graduate, and is founder and president of Elase Medical Spas. Things we especially appreciate about Carrie - she's happy, she's non-judgemental, she'll share everything she has with anyone whether she knows them or not, she's thrilled with everyone's success, she's a hard worker and though it seems like a small thing, she cleans up her kids' toys when they leave here :).



This year I surprised Carrie with a cherry chocolate cake layered with a cherry yogurt cream frosting (which you can see got eaten before we got around to candles).

Cherry Chocolate Cake

1 Duncan Hines Dark chocolate cake mix

21 oz. cherry pie filling

3 egg whites (add one yolk if making a layered cake)

1 tsp. almond extract

Mix all ingredients until fluffy about 2 minutes. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13 cake pan or 2 layer pans. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. For layered cakes I put a piece of parchment paper cut to size on the greased pan bottom before pouring batter in. It makes it easier for layer to tip out. If you're going to torte the layers (cut them in half cross-wise) partially freeze them before cutting. Dust with powdered sugar or frost with Cherry Yogurt Frosting. The cake and frosting can be made fat free using only the egg whites and 'lite' and fat-free ingredients. Be aware fat-free coolwhip will not hold it's shape for a layered cake.

Cherry Yogurt Frosting

4 oz. cherry yogurt

4 oz. whipping cream or 8 oz. coolwhip

Whip the cream. Stir the yogurt to soften it then fold the yogurt into the whipped cream. Refrigerate iced cake if keeping for longer than a couple of hours.

When Carrie was little she expected events to be celebrated right, fully and well. For her 3rd birthday party the theme was bunnies and Carrie asked for a bunny cake, probably because she was just becoming aware of Easter.

It's made with two round layers. The ears are cut from one layer and the bow is made from the two triangular pieces left after cutting the ears. It's covered in coconut with pink tinted coconut for the nose, ears and cheeks. Carrie loved it.