p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"To Bilbo and Frodo :)/p
p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"Merry's pretty young in this, as Frodo is still living in Buckland. Probably around 2079-2080. Bilbo is visiting Buckland./p
p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"Merry dipped his finger into the mixing bowl and licked it experimentally. He wasn't sure whether or not he liked it… it didn't taste like Lilly's cake batter did, but then again, Lilly was an actual cook, and he hadn't had much practice. Well, it would have to do. It was, at least, somewhat better than the last two tries. He carefully poured the batter into a baking pan without spillingspan class="Apple-converted-space" /spanemtoo/emspan class="Apple-converted-space" /spanmuch of it onto the counter. Clambering off of the chair he was using as a stepstool, he trotted off to find a rag and cleaned up his mess. Then he placed the cake into the oven and sincerely hoped it would turn out alright./p
p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"Surprisingly, it was only a little burnt when he took it out. He stood on a chair at the table, contemplating with a furrowed brow the rather sorry looking item. Finally coming to a conclusion, he went and fetched a butcher's knife, and proceeded to cut two jagged circles of cake out of the larger original. He wasn't sure if that was how little circle cakes were usually made, but if it worked…./p
p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"On his second try, he made something that might be frosting. It would pass for frosting, anyways. Then he took out some jars of colored sugar crystals and did his level best to make a red letter 'B' and a blue letter 'F' with them, one on each cake. Finally having accomplished the most difficult part of his mission, he tiptoed to his room, carefully carrying the cakes, and set them on his little table. Then he went out to wait for his guests …/p
p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"When Bilbo and Frodo returned from their trek across Buckland, they found a very anxious little Brandybuck sitting on a fence rail and waiting for them. As soon as he saw them, he jumped down and greeted them exuberantly./p
p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;""Uncle Bilbo! Frodo! C'mon! I have a surprise for you!" He cried, grabbing their hands and dragging them with him to his room. "I made you cake for your birthday," he said, directing them to the table a little bashfully, "I think it tastes okayem./em" He said a bit incredulously. Bilbo tried to hide a grin as he sat down on one of the miniscule chairs, and hoped that he wouldn't be poisoned by the…emthing/emspan class="Apple-converted-space" /spanon his plate. It appeared to be a lump, covered in pink goo, with colored sugar on top. Oh well, he couldn't let the little rascal down, could he? He noticed that a colorful picture was being used as a placemat for the plate; he slid it out and looked at it. "It's Smaug." Merry explained. Frodo pulled out the one underneath his plate. "And that one's an Elf." Scrawled in large messy child's handwriting at the bottom of each of the pages were the words, "Happy Birthday. From Merry."/p
p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"A/N: So, I got the idea to write this earlier when I was trying to think of something I could write for Bilbo and Frodo, even though technically hobbitsspan class="Apple-converted-space" /spanemgivespan class="Apple-converted-space" /span/empresents on their birthdays. I wanted to give them a present anyways. So, as I was saying, er, typing, I happened to be making them a birthday cake (and subsequently annoying my mom by destroying her kitchen), and it honestly turned out worse than this. The icing was so terrible, I didn't even bother putting it on the cake, and um, the cake was partway edible. It tasted like really bad cornbread, but, at least it tasted somewhat like food… Anyways, the points I was getting at were that there a backstory to this, and that I should never be allowed into a kitchen ;) BTW, my beta came up with the title./p
p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"Note from the Beta: I really honestly feel privileged to be the beta for this. Honestly, it was better than I expected, knowing the author. :3/p
p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"A/N (again):Lol, my beta left a nice note^ :D :D :D/p