The Great Cake Caper 2009

Meet our Brittany... The shameless Photog who took our pictures!

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Last week my youngest girl confessed her dream to be a world class "Baker." She was given two very "stylish" cookbooks for Christmas one year and they are full of DESSERTS. She was sitting at the table with these two books and asked, "Do you think we could make a cake on Friday?"

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I was like yeah sure. Cake is easy - box from Duncan Hines [check], frosting from Duncan Hines [check], eggs [oops! gotta' get those- er check], oil [check], water [check], mixer [check], CAKE DONE.

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She flips through her book and says, "Good. I want to make something out of here."

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CHECK. AND. MATE.

She won.

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This is the very same child who used to complain about helping me cook dinner because SHE. COULD. NOT. COOK. And now she wants to make some pristine dessert from some fancy smancy cookbook and what else could I say.... "Are you sure?"

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Taylor: "Yes."

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She continues to flip through page after page. She is diligent in her perusal of each recipe. I also begin the flipping process. I pick up the other book and start looking.

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Me: "Okay. What do you want to make?"

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Her: "I dunno. Something."

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I land on this delicious looking white cake covered in fresh berries and my mouth started to water. There was a short, and might I add expensive list of ingredients... But this was going to be so fun! I flipped the page around toward my daughter and said, "How about this one?"

Taylor: [smiles] "Kayla and I have always wanted to make that cake! Can Kayla help?"

Me: "Sure."

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I scanned the list again and made a mental note to pick up the ingredients from the store on Friday.

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Friday arrived. I had the blueberries, blackberries and strawberries, white chocolate, self-rising flower, eggs, milk and sugar raring to go when the Miss got home from school. Kayla arrived shortly thereafter and the cooking was in full swing!

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We had fun, laughed and I was asked several times...

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"Mom? Would you let me do it?"

So I had to put down my spatula and put on my Chief Chef hat... "Okay."
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The cake was smashing! Like shortcake. Yum.

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A few of Brittany's friends dropped by while we finished up pouring the cake into the pans. We licked ourselves silly trying to get every last drop of luscious, melted white chocolate out of the bowl.

The cakes were baked. I kept telling them to turn down the television and not to laugh so the cake wouldn't fall. They said, "Don't drop them."

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Now we had to wait for Kayla to return from her dance practice to finish the chore.

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About an hour later Taylor said, "Do you think we could finish the cake?"

Me: "What about Kayla?".

Taylor: "She'll Live."

So we melted the rest of the chocolate and began to slather it onto the first layer of cake. We covered the chocolate with a layer of mixed berries and then added the second layer. We covered it until it was running over the side with white chocolate goodness and then added more berries to the top. Can I just tell you that it was THE. MOST. BEAUTIFUL. CAKE. I. HAVE. EVER. SEEN?



See for yourself... I do recommend baking cakes with your children. We had so much fun!

Taylor is so proud of her cake.

We had to wait until nearly midnight before she would cut the darn thing. She wanted to wait for Kayla and Brandi... They all lived. A very rich, yummy and decadent first feat for my Girl... The Brave Little Baker.