THE CAKE

Actually it was the third cake, the first cake was for Mimi's birthday (Anna's mother). Anna was having a luncheon for some ladies for the big 90th birthday and I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. She requested a carrot cake. I had never baked a cake before so I went to Paula Dean online and got son Bobby's carrot cake and I baked it. Then I baked another for a Realtors luncheon and it was auctioned off for $20. The recipient said it was good.
So now for The Cake, 40 years ago we had 15 weddings from the single adult group at the First Baptist Church of Arlington. Anna and I being one of them, since that time this group (none divorced, but several have passed away) has met from time to time for dinner. Since we are now spread out we mainly meet once a year at Greg and Mary Jim Allen's big farmhouse in Bremond (between Waco and Bryan). Anna did not get to go as her mom just had cataract surgery on Thursday (it was successful). I went by myself on Friday afternoon and came back on Saturday. I volunteered to bring a cake. Luckily Anna spent Thursday night at her mother's, so she missed the "Baking of The Cake". Since I recently joined NetFlicks I had just gotten a movie, "The Kingdom of Heaven". This 5 hour epic is about the crusades with Jerusalem being The Kingdom of Heaven. It was 5 hours of battle, fights and much excitement to add to the drama of baking the cake. I used two cakes mixes (the easy kind) and filled the two cake pans, not realizing that each cake mix was for two pans. I soon found my mistake as burned smells started coming from the oven. I look in and to my dismay both cakes were running over and spilling onto the bottom of the oven. I decided to let them cook and clean up later. I began work on Julia Child's chocolate butter frosting and louder smells came from the oven. Looking in I found small fires burning with the spilled cake mix. I wet a dishcloth and smothered the flames. They were just little flames. I continued to smother flames until the cakes were done. Of course that were overflowing the pans which had to be later trimmed and sampled. I now have every fan in the house on, the windows open, candles burning and room spray often to try to kill the "burn" odor. So back to Julia's frosting, it was long and laborious and I knew that it would be good. I sat down to watch some of the battles on the TV and let the cakes cool. After sufficient time, I went back to the kitchen to frost the cakes. After frosting the first layer and no frosting left, I reread the recipe to find that the frosting was for ONE layer not two. I got out my mom's Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and got an easier recipe and made another batch of frosting and finished the cake. I sat down to watch the rest of the battles, then I tackled the kitchen with every possible pan, pot, cup, spoon and a multitude of other utensils which were all dirty. Finally about midnight I got it all done, the odors mainly gone, the windows closed and went to bed. Whew! The cake was a big hit in Bremond. It was a yellow cake with chocolate icing. Bon Apetit!