Naptime Blog

My husband recently turned 40 and on Saturday we had a party for him in our yard (which actually turned into our basement because of the rain).  My mother-in-law, mother and I did all of the cooking, and the whole week before I spent shopping, cleaning, cooking, and preparing.

On Thursday night I made the cakes.  I prepared two half sheet cakes to make a double layer cake filled with chocolate pudding.  After cooling a bit, the first one popped out of the pan beautifully.  The second one got stuck to the bottom of the pan.  No matter how I tried, I couldn’t release it.  Finally, it came out – in a million pieces, and half still stuck to the bottom.

The next morning I asked my husband to run to the deli to get more eggs, and when he returned, he had coffee, cold cuts, and other groceries, but no eggs.  So trying to avoid being late for work, he once again ran back to the deli for the eggs.

I prepared the cake, put it in the oven, and began preparing the baked rigatoni.  Then, since my daughter had a half day of school, I took the cake out of the oven, popped the trays of pasta in the refrigerator, and off we went to the bus stop while the cake cooled.

When we got home, Juliana and I were making the icing. I popped the now third cake from the pan and Viola! Beautiful! I went back into the dining room and continued with the icing.  I had forgotten an ingredient and asked Juliana to get it. When she returned, she forgot to close the kitchen door, and the dog took full advantage of that.  In the two seconds it took us to run in the kitchen, King had taken a chunk out of the cake.  Exhausted already with so many more things to do, all I could do was cry.

Paul had called in the midst of all this, and I cried to him.  And I felt terrible that of all the cakes I had made, it was HIS that I couldn’t get right.  He suggested that instead of making a fourth cake, I should just cut off that corner of the cake and replace it with on of the corners from cake number two that got stuck the pan the night before.  Great idea!  Just as I was about to go get the cake, Juliana walked back into the dining room with a chunk of cake saying “Mommy, it’s good cake!”

Aaaaaahhhh!  My daughter just pulled off another corner of the cake!  So again I cried! The twins were sitting in their high chairs through all of this just watching the show, and now Juliana ran into the living room in tears, knowing she made a big mistake.

So I had to try to rig two corners of a cake with remnants of another cake.  Somehow I managed to do it and it didn’t look bad!  Actually, it would be the bottom layer, so once I had it ready to go, topped it with chocolate pudding, and placed the other layer on top, I figured I should be in the clear!

I usually have Paul’s help in layering the cakes, but this time it was the seven year old and myself.  I used the cake lifter and also grabbed a huge spatula, but it was still too big and had to ask Juliana to help by holding a corner and maneuvering with me to place it on the bottom layer.  I was in a sweat, but somehow we managed to layer them perfectly!  Finally we caught a break!  And once the cake was together Juliana and I were high-fiving each other, yelling out in total happiness, and the pregnant mom that I am, I was jumping up and down clapping.  But the cutest thing was my twin ten month olds were squealing and clapping along with us!!!

Finally it was time to ice the cake.  I decorated it beautifully, and then was ready to write in the words…  And halfway through “Happy Birthday, Daddy” my daughter asks me “Mommy, what is a Birthay?”

How did I spell birthday wrong?  So once again I had to make another fix… 

So all in all, I took way too long to make this cake, and had it been for anyone else, I probably would have thrown it away and gone to the bakery.  I must say, through it all, it looked great and was delicious!  I got so many complements and everyone loved it!  But boy was I pooped! 

Jennifer
Mom to Juliana (7), Louis (10m) and Anthony (10m)
Expecting #4 in September!
www.nevaland.com