She’s 12 today.
A beautiful joy. Even with a wad of orange gum in her mouth.
She asked if she could have a marble cake. Sure, you can. And then she looked at her grandmother, and in her best 12-year-old, you’ve-got-to-be-kiddin-me, pre-teen, on-the-verge-of-knowing-everything voice, she said “You know that’s a KIND of a cake, not a cake with real marbles.” She may have even rolled her eyes.
Oh my.
As if my mother, her grandmother, has managed to live 60 some-odd years and not know what a marble cake is.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, Hey teenager! Tired of your parents? Move out, get a job, and pay your own way while you still know everything.
Last night I baked a birthday cake for my niece. It was one of those beautiful double layer chocolate cakes. I wish I had a picture to show you, except it was an awful mess lying out in the pasture where I chunked it. First of all, when I flipped the cake pans over, half the cake stuck to the bottom of the pan leaving lopsided, gouged out layers. Not the total end of the world, I thought. Maybe I could level it out and still make it look nice. Icing it was another problem as crumbs mingled with icing causing a gloppy mess. Finally to top it off, I picked up a big bite-size chunk of cake and popped it in my mouth. It may look bad, but at least it tasted good. Wrong. I was talking on the phone when I was mixing the batter and, well, I must’ve been a bit side-tracked and doubled or maybe quadrupled the salt. Salty cake just ain’t all that tasty, let me tell you.
After rinsing my mouth out under the faucet, I picked up the glass cake stand by the pedestal, carried it out to the pasture, reached back, and slung the cake off the pedestal as far as I could. I’m sure a coyote had a nice treat last night. And probably a belly ache. Today I imagine he’s suffering from hypertension due to an elevated sodium intake.
My husband, who hangs his Superman cap in the closet each night, cooked ribeye steaks, risotto, asparagus, and spinach strawberry salad for my niece’s birthday dinner tonight.
Oh yeah, and he stayed up until 1:30 IN THE MORNING baking her a lovely cake.
One that came out of the pans beautifully,
Iced wonderfully, and
Tasted divinely.
The best marble cake I’ve ever had.
Happy Birthday Ashy!
Angel Wheeler 
Sweet!
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Loved the marble cake just beautiful. Ash is truly blessed to have you and Jason in her life Love you all.
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You know, I’m pretty sure you’ve made Jason up to make your blog better. I’ve never met him. I think you just wanted to be the envy of every woman who ever came across your blog. And some men, too.
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I love the marbles on top! Awesome job, “Aunt” Angel!
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Happy (belated) birthday to Ashy! And Jason, that is truly an amazing job on the cake!!! Just so happens that’s what I do for a living (for the last 39 years!) I’m a cake baker and I don’t know how many cakes you have made in the past, but if that is a first or second time attempt …BRAVO. I’m impressed! (and I’m so stealing that “marble” idea for my next marble requested cake!) Too cute! Your niece is just adorable and she is fortunate to have you both in her life. Is she Jolea’s daughter?? or do you have other siblings? FYI … in the future when you bake your cakes, you might want to line the bottom of your cake pan with circles cut out of wax paper or parchment and then grease the sides of the pan lightly before you put your batter in. and let it cool at least 30 minutes before trimming off the top and turning the layers out. Oh yeah, steak, risotto, asparagrus, etc- where did you find this guy??? I’d like to “order” one of “those” for my darling 27 year old grand-daughter!!! Until next time ….Donna
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Donna, I had to bake a cake the next night to take to school for a luncheon. I did the wax paper thingie and it turned out beautifully!! Thanks for the tip. Oh, it tasted pretty good too!! Lemon blueberry buttermilk cake.
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So glad it worked out and would LOVE to have that recipe for the lemon blueberry buttermilk cake (OMG..all my favorite things in one cake!!
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I will have to tell Brooklyn it was Ashlyns birthday. Happy Birthday to her. Good job on the cake and by the way Rod is a great cook also…so I am blessed to have a wonderful cook too…
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That was a scrumpious, delicious, fabulas cake! Perfect! Just like Jason! THE STORIES ARE ALL TRUE!
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