Thursday, April 15, 2010

Cake Party

Dearest Friends,
Happy Friday! Happy weekend! After all the entertaining I’ve done lately, I thought I’d take it easy this week. But somehow, before the week was over, I ended up surrounded by my animal friends having an impromptu party. I am the hostess with mostest!
I don’t know about you, but my family is addicted to the Food Network programming: Iron Chef, DDD, Bobby Flay’s Throwdown and Ace of Cakes. I, personally, am a big fan of Ace of Cakes. While all sorts of cooked meats are always good, I have quite a sweet tooth. Nothing is more appealing than a cake in the shape of something cool! Making the cakes looks like a lot of fun, so I thought I’d give it a try!
First, I did some tippy tapping and found an appropriate recipe. Then I had to decide what shape I wanted my cake to be – that was easy! Then I had to gather my ingredients. There were a few items I didn’t have, so I ran to the Food Lion down the road and used Mom’s magic plastic card to purchase them.
I was all ready! Knowing that there is an appropriate hat for everything, I rummaged through my hat collection until I came upon the perfect hat for my baking endeavor. Now that I was appropriately topped, I was ready to jump in and start creating!
As I started combining my ingredients, Mom opened the door to go feed the squirrels in the backyard and in swarmed a flock of birds. Oh no! It was the vigilante cardinals!!



What now? All of a sudden it dawned on me – I spied the bowl of eggs I was about to start cracking and adding to my batter. I didn’t know how I was going to get out of this one – they were NOT chocolate! They landed on the kitchen island and on my fabulous hat. They glared at me threateningly. I politely asked how they were doing today, but they were not in the mood for small talk. “What’s going on here?” the head avian asked. I told him I was creating a culinary work of art. “We must demand that you return these eggs to our nests!” Aha! I realized I was not in trouble after all – they thought I was using cardinal eggs. I explained that I was using chicken eggs that were specifically laid for sale to chefs. The cardinals advised me that they generally don’t approve of the use of any kind of eggs, but they didn’t like chickens, so they would let it slide this time. They warned me that they were going to be keeping an eye on me, so I better be careful. I told them they were welcome to stay until the cake was ready and have a piece, but being the ever watchful vigilantes, they said they had other eggs to save. They waited for Mom to open the back door again and they disappeared out of it as quickly as they came in.
Cali and Malcolm saw the birds fly out and had to come see if I was okay. I explained what happened and then invited them to stay and help with the cake. They were both excited about it and gladly put on the hats that I required all my assistant chefs to wear. I figured as long as we were making a cake we might just as well invite more critters over to eat it. Bobbi, Corny, Winky and Felisha all jumped at the chance to help make and eat the cake. Rocky said he had to finish up something but would be over as soon as he could – he liked cake!



Everybody helped. We got a little sloppy with the flour and it ended up everywhere! We finally somehow got the batter mixed, poured and into the oven. While the cake baked we mixed up all different colors of frosting. Everyone wanted to taste it to make sure it was okay - I was hoping there would be enough left for me to cover the cake the way I wanted. The toughest part about the whole process was waiting for the cake to cool. I wanted to start decorating it!! When it finally cooled I went to work. I was a creating fool! I handed out milk or sweet tea to my friends for them to sip on while I put the finishing touches on my masterpiece. Rocky arrived just in time for the first cut to be made. Boy, was everyone surprised when I unveiled the cake – it was good enough to rival any Ace of Cakes cake!! My friends erupted into applause – I was so proud.



We cut my masterpiece into pieces and chowed down! By the time the feeding frenzy was over, the kitchen counters were covered in cake crumbs and milk. We all sat in a sugar induced daze. When we finally started to come out of it, we couldn’t help but giggle. Somehow, the Ace of Cakes kitchen never looked this bad when they finished a cake. I cut the remaining cake into pieces so everyonecould take some cake home to their families.
Before anyone left, Corny actually asked first if he could share his new favorite joke – and it WASN’T a knock, knock joke!! “Where do cantaloupes spend their summers?” Corny asked us. None of us knew the answer and he made us beg him to tell us before he finally answered, “John Cougar Meloncamp.” I don’t know if it was the sugar or the fact that it was a really good joke, but Cali laughed so hard milk came out her nose! Malcolm mumbled something about the idiot crow, took his cake and slunk out into the night.
Since Cali and Bobbi lived the closest, they stayed to help me clean up. The rest of the crew gathered up their cake, said their thanks and headed home. It didn’t take long for us to tidy up and Cali and Bobbi were on their way.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. Invite some of your friends over and bake a cake. It doesn’t have to be anyone’s birthday – just do it for the fun of it!

Love & licks,
Josie

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