I love celebrating other people’s birthdays, and making them feel extra special on their day. Over the course of a few days I spent some time thinking of what I could do, to make The Guy’s birthday a little different.
I ended up decorating our house with inexpensive ideas: Beer, snacks, tissue paper, balloons and confetti. What more could a guy ask for?
It may not be pinterest-worthy but I thought it was cute. It took a lot of work to individually cut that tissue paper garland and put it together, man. You know I love you when I blow up balloons for you. It’s a little fear of mine, because I don’t want to blow them up too much and have them bursting in my face. It’s a scary thing.
I had two surprises for him, one I will reveal and share with you next week. The other gift I wanted him to look away while I got it ready. Our town house is an open concept so he probably knew what he was getting as his second surprise once I opened the freezer. Singing the Happy Birthday song to him, he made his wish and blew out the candles. He had questions about where the cake came from because we usually go for the Dairy Queen cakes.
It’s been a tradition in my family for years to give the birthday-person an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. But this year when I went to BlogHer, I interacted with the Baskin Robbins folks and asked if I could potentially work with them in the future. I received a $30 gift card to go online to place my customized order on Baskin Robbins website.
Since I was given a gift card to purchase the cake I didn’t want to go online to do it because I wanted a bigger cake for him that ended up costing $49.98. I placed the order over the phone and picked it up the next day. Except when I went to pick it up, the woman charged me a $5 cake decoration fee, which wasn’t mentioned on the website nor did I ask for anything different on the cake. So I was a little muff’ed at that.
How does Baskin Robbins and Dairy Queen differ?
It’s clearly obvious the Baskin Robbins cakes are far more expensive than Dairy Queen, and I suppose that’s all due to the fact that you can do so much more with a BK cake than DQ, all the custom options, the shapes, and different flavours you can put into your personalized cake. Then again, I’m not sure how often we’ll be giving each other Baskin Robbins 9″ cakes for that price. It may have stung a little.
Did you know Baskin Robbins cakes are made differently than Dairy Queen? Clearly I didn’t because I was confused when the sales associates were telling me their cakes are half regular cake, and half ice cream cake. Luckily I was informed they had a fudge crunch cake (much like a Dairy Queen cake with chocolate on the bottom, fudgey gooy centre and vanilla on top). I went with their basic 9″ round cake that serves way more people than the two of us in the house. Perfectly okay with us :)
Baskin Robbins is more customizable with their orders. Their go-to cakes are mostly half ice cream cake, and half regular cake, but I went the full nine yards and asked for ALL the ice cream in his. Isn’t that the best? Then again, I never did have the other option so I wouldn’t know. I assume it would be good, who doesn’t like cake? I wasn’t daring enough to go for a customized option, even though cookies ‘n cream top would be incredible. There were so many options to choose from, but I went with ol’ faithful.
Now the most important part, the fudge crunch in the middle, absolutely divine. Best part of the entire cake, so fudgey and crunchy. The Guy and I agreed this was incredible. The vanilla ice cream on the cake tasted more like vanilla bean rather than a regular ol’ vanilla — it was a nice change. As for the frosting on top, it was pure sugar, and hard. As a candy and sweets lover, it was far too sweet for me, even. I prefer Dairy Queen’s creamy and soft icing.
I can’t wait to show you the second part of his birthday! For those of you who are interested in Baskin Robbins icecream and cakes, here’s a bit more information regarding up and coming cakes this season.
Some of their fun seasonal cakes include:
- Pumpkin Patch Cake – This is one jack-o-lantern you will not want to leave on your doorstep. This creative dessert, decorated as a smiling pumpkin, will trick your guests and make a fun sweet treat at the same time with your choice of ice cream and cake flavors.
- Fall Harvest Roll Cake – Delight in the season with a fudge frosted roll cake, finished with a festive decoration of leaves and pumpkins.
They’ll also be announcing two new mini-cakes available for $12.99. These serve 2-4 people — perfect for small gatherings — and cakes include:
- Celebration Mini Roll Cake – This streamer and confetti-topped cake is the perfect sweet and colorful addition to any birthday celebration!
- Rosette Mini Roll Cake – This trendy ombre cake design features rosettes in vibrant shades of purple.
Additionally, Baskin-Robbins is celebrating with guests across the globe on Twitter with its “31 Cakes in 31 Days Sweepstakes.†The brand will be giving away 31 Baskin-Robbins gift cards for valued at $31 throughout the month. and Anyone can participate in the giveaway simply by following @BaskinRobbins on Twitter and sharing how they celebrate life’s occasions with ice cream cakes using #BRCakeSweeps.
Do you have any birthday traditions?
Do you prefer icecream cake, regular cake, or something else?
When is YOUR birthday?
But the place was hoppin’ with people during the lunch hour, so we decided for ourselves it must be good.
The ambiance of the restaurant was inviting, with the open concept layout. It was easy to get a table, indoors to get away from the heat of the day. We were lead towards the back of the restaurant near the open kitchen, as my friend required a high chair for her little boy.
Our server was really funny, and recommended a few things to us on the menu. I’m a sandwich girl through-and-through, and rarely venture out of that comfort zone, so I went with the University BLT. As for their price point, I would say it’s moderately priced, considering it’s in the heart of the downtown Palo Alto, and the beautiful Stanford University campus. As you can see from the lunch menu we were given, the prices range anywhere from $8-$15 for their food.
3:00pm — Not much left, but I ate some chicken (not pictured as I ate the chicken before photographing) gnocchi pasta that I made the other night. I was craving pizza so bad, since we’ve been eating take out for the majority of the past two weeks. But I decided to stay boring and somewhat healthy and eat my leftovers. So appetizing, I know. I ran out of pasta sauce and decided to make my own concoction of butter, garlic, milk and whatever else I could think of. Tasted good at least.
