The Cake Lady I'm Not

A friend on facebook took a picture of a cake she made for her daughter’s sleepover. She found the picture on pinterest and made her own cake.. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t her design. In my book, she is now the most creative person I know.

photo by Crystal Bennington

When I was little, in the 50′s and 60′s, we didn’t have elaborate birthday parties. For the most part, we had several friends over and had cake and ice cream. Then Grandma and Grandpa would come over and give me a card with something bizarre written on the front. Grandma was living on Pluto for a few years, and really didn’t know which end was up. She knew my birthday was on November 9th, but there was always something else that shared my day.

Happy Birthday, Vickie                   Pearl Harbor Day

Oh, she didn’t do it every year, but as I got older, I really appreciated the humor that being crazy generated. Cute, yet alarming at the same time.

But, back to the cake. So, my 5 or 6 friends would sit down and enjoy a round chocolate cake with white icing. It had to be devils food chocolate. My mom would stick candles in the cake, we would sing, and then eat and laugh for the rest of the time. It was great growing up in my neighborhood. But, never, ever, would anyone, ever, have a cake so wonderful as the one my friend just made.  I work with another girl, Misty, who makes cakes for her children also. The next three are cakes that she has made for her children. I would never be able to create anything like that. I’m too afraid to make a gingerbread house at Christmas.

photo by Misty Riffee Owens

Another teacher, Stephanie, who admits that she doesn’t cook, also tried her hand at the cake making for her son a while back. Everyone around me is creative like that. I tried one time for my son.  It was supposed to be an army cake, even though he never played army. He played with his Ghostbusters, which would have been easy….in my book. I would have just had a white icing cake and called it a ghost. But, the army cake never stood a chance. First of all,  I didn’t have the icing thick enough to hold the plastic green army men. I did try to dye the icing to look camouflaged.  I even messed that up. It looked like vomit with strings of spinach running through it. I’m creative in my descriptions if nothing else.

So, kudos to you, Crystal, the Cake Lady. Well done.

May you have your cake and eat it too.

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