Piece of a Cake

from La Dolce Vita

    Last night as I was winding down to bed, I was frustrated.  You know, you say your prayers, offer your day to God and then apologize that the day was such a poor offering.  I've been working for days on a YouTube video and am having difficulty putting it together (lets just say, it's still not posted).
    So in the free association that happens before bed, I remember this horrible cake my sister and I made for our mom one birthday. In our minds we were making a beautiful offering like the Amaretto cake pictured at left (my personal favorite cake ever made).  This cake, however, was a yellow cake, straight from the box.  We had mixed it up according to the directions and set it in the oven to bake.  Sounds like a great beginning, yes? Well, let's just say the end did not live up to the beginning.

from Breezy Cheetah Pop

      As we removed the layers from the oven, one was dropped.  We took the good layer, then spread the bad one on top.  It looked a bit like freshly mixed cement.  Then it was time to decorate.  This was long before the advent of Wilton's concentrated coloring, so to make a frosting of the lurid red I remember, it must have taken two bottles of food coloring.  To complete, we added multi colored sprinkles.  Of course we did not take pictures, but the cake at right has the same feel of our sorry cake.
      My thought last night was how gracious my mother was in accepting her ugly cake, then it came to me how much I would enjoy it from my kids as an expression of love.  Maybe the day was not such a waste.  Later, I told my husband about the different ways to see the day, he said "Who cares, it's still cake!"  I guess we could restate it as "Any day above ground is a good day."  Hope you all have many more good days, and I promise, the video is coming.