Caramel Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Meet my parents. They just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary a couple weekends ago and since they were out of town for the actual date, I decided to host a dinner party in their honor this past weekend to celebrate.

They have quite possibly the cutest love story I've ever heard. You wanna hear it? Okay, I'll give you the short version.

Basically, My mom was 16 and my dad was 23 and just gotten home from his stint in the army. They had a mutual friend who introduced them at the county fair. That was probably in August/September. At the time, my mom had a boyfriend, so even though the mutual friend had given my dad my mom's phone number, he didn't call her. Fast Forward a few weeks, and they're all hanging out at the town square, cruising around and whatnot. Now, my mom is riding in the car with her boyfriend, sees my dad in his car and she gives him a little wave. That wave is why my brothers and I are even here, folks. That one little wave sparked a relationship that is 40 years long and still going. He took that wave as a sign and finally called her. They were married a couple months later in January. Talk about a whirlwind romance. They probably only really dated for 3-4 months and got married. Not engaged. Married.

It's a great story. And ever since I've been little and dreamed of my future husband, I always kind of think that it's going to happen like that. That there is just going to be this immediate connection with someone, where you know it's right. I don't think it happens that way for everyone... but, I have a feeling it's going to happen that way for me. It's in my blood ;)

So, yeah, back to the dinner party. I wanted to make a cake to celebrate and I saw this cake on Jennifer's awesome blog a few weeks ago and when I saw it, I immediately bookmarked it for this occasion.
I did alter it a bit, though. Instead of making the caramel filling, I cheated and used caramel in a squeeze bottle. I squirted it over the bottom layer, put it in the freezer for a bit to harden up and then I put some of the frosting over it. I doubled the frosting to make sure I'd have enough and I still have a ton of the frosting left that I need to figure out something to do with. But, oh my god, y'all. This frosting is amazing! Honestly, the cake part sucked. It was really dry and flavorless (maybe I overbaked it?), but the frosting.... ohhhhh the frosting. It made up for the tasteless cake part. And I mean, honestly.. isn't the cake just a vehicle for the frosting?

Happy Anniversary mom and dad! Before you know it, you'll be celebrating your 50th!