Bake a Cake!

Hello to y'all!  It's me again with another hopefully fun story to share.

Today is my mother's birthday!  (Happy birthday mom!)  But she`s off at my little brother`s basketball game today.  Actually, she first went to a parade my older brother was in.  He does sword fighting with the SCA and thus was in the parade to show off his cool costume and sword.  He only got back an hour or two ago.  Then my mom went to Michael's basketball game. 

Just before she left, my cousin An called.  So she came over for most of the day.  We talked for half an hour, then my aunt come over to leave a present for my mom.  She asked us if we were baking mom a cake.  An and I looked at each other and said "That's a great idea!"  So we did.

Well, first we ate lunch.  (Scrambled eggs with real bacon bits, dehydrated onion and powdered garlic and cheese)  It was hard figuring what to have for lunch since An is allergic to corn.  Now before you think I'm crazy, I'm tellin' ya; corn is in EVERYTHING!  It just doesn't always go by the name 'corn'.  Glucose is a corn product, believe it or not.

After lunch An called her mom for a chocolate cake recipie that is really good.  Then we spent a lovely hour and a half mixing it up while listening to various Adventures In Odyessy episodes. (Like the one where Jack, Curt, Jimmy and Lucy are all grown up and come back for a visit and all the guys love (or at least have a crush on) Lucy.  I love it.)  Then we made hot chocolate and pudding (for layer filling) while waiting for the cake to bake and cool.  We also listened to more Odyessy.  Finally, the cakes were getting cooler, so we mixed up a chocolate glaze for it.  It was ... a little too runny and kinda poured off the cake, onto the plate and then to the counter.  We also had problems with the layers.  We had cut each of the layers in half so we had four layers.  But one layer broke due to a slightly undone center.  We got it stacked at last and then poured the afore mentioned glaze on.  When that had sort of set, we mixed up some plain vanilla frosting and began piping "Happy Birthday" onto it.  'Happy' went on fine.  Then I began writing 'Birthday', starting with the 'th' because I'd be able to center it better.  Well, when I got to the 'd', the pipe bag's seam broke and frosting blooped onto my 'd'.  After we scraped off the offending mark and repaired it with some of the leftover glaze,we transfered the icing to another bad. 

My mom has, er, had three bags.  One just broke.  Another's opening hole is too big and none of the things you put on fit properly and would just pop out if we squeezed.  The last bag was made of a type of canvas.  We used that one.  It is a HUGE bag.  It's over a foot long!  And we didn't even have a cup of icing.  But we used it.  And I finished writing Birthday and also drew a flower.  Then I removed my hand from the bag.  My had was sticky and the bag appeared wet.  Canvas is not waterproof and he moisture of icing oozes through.  Despite the stickiness, I put a ring of icing around the bottom edge to finish.  We had just enough.

Then began the grand ol' process of cleanup.  The dishes were moved to the sink and the cake set in the fridge.  The cooling racks were wiped and put away.  An washed some of the bowls and things while I wiped the counter.  Then I put some of the smaller items in the dishwasher while she finished the rest.  And we also washed things that were left in the sink from before lunch.  In the meantime our last Odyessy CD had run it's course and the stereo had begun playing the next CD.  Christmas carols!  In February!  It was fun.

After that I found a DVD she wanted to borrow and we went back to my room for a few more minutes.  We played with my block and marble set.  Yeah, we're cool like that.  I love toys of that kind that are more commonly thought of as 'little' kid toys'. 

The it was nearly 5:00 and she had to go home.  We said goodvye and I sat down to tell you about our fun advetures.  I love making cakes.