I wanted to celebrate my birthday in a big way this year but without the sugar so I bought sugar free cake mix and keto frosting and my mom and I started to whip up a delicious birthday treat. At least we hoped it would be delicious because the whole family was coming to the party.
As you can see from the photos, things went relatively smoothly. We hit a rough spot when we made the first package of frosting because the butter didn’t blend in fully so there were little spots in the frosting on the first layer. But it was inside the cake and it didn’t affect the flavor, so in the end it wasn’t a big deal. When we made the second package of frosting for the second layer, we did a better job of softening the butter and cream cheese, so we didn’t have the same problem with the frosting on the upper layer of the cake and the sides.
The cake tasted exactly like a version with sugar, and the frosting was really good. It wasn’t as chocolately as frosting made with melted chocolate and confectioner’s sugar and I could taste the cream cheese so I can’t say it was perfect, but it was really close and the entire family loved the cake so it was definitely a win. I’ve tried making my own frosting before using swerve confectioner’s sugar instead of regular confectioner’s sugar but it just didn’t taste right so finding a frosting mix that did was probably more than just a win. I mean if you’re going to make a cake it should be a good one, right?
As usual, my mind was drifting while I was working. And because I was baking a birthday cake with my mother, I was remembering all the times I had watched her bake cakes over the years. I started thinking about the times I got to lick the bowl, the times I got to ‘help’ mix when I was little and we used a handheld mixer that used to run away with me and the bowl unless my mother held onto the bowl. When I got older and started to make cakes on my own, I learned to test the center when it came out of the oven to make sure it had the right level of ‘spring’ and that a toothpick inserted in the center came out clean. I also learned to ration the frosting so there was enough to finish the sides after the first time I had to defrost the top of the cake a bit to have enough to finish the sides.
Reflecting on it though, more than anything I learned patience. Yes, I can now bake a cake perfectly, but it was more than just the procedure I learned. I learned to mix ingredients in the right order, requiring me to learn to read and follow the directions, which, for me at least, requires I slow down and take a minute. As an adult, my life is full of times I need to stop and figure out what needs to happen or how something needs to happen. I know how to do that because I learned to bake birthday cakes. I also learned to wait. As a child I waited for the spatula to lick off the leftover frosting, as I got older I learned to wait for the time I was allowed to actually eat the cake, and as an adult I can now wait for things when I need to because I learned how to bake a birthday cake. I also learned to ration because we each got a certain number of slices so it was all ‘equal’ so I learned that if I overindulged there was no cake to enjoy the next day.
I am a hundred percent sure there are people reading this and thinking, ‘seriously? baking a cake taught you that?’ Yes, yes it did. I mean, think about the things you learned in the kitchen or the dinner table or just around food in general. Some families fought at dinner or over food, and some families showed they loved each other through food, and some families didn’t eat together at all. Everything we saw and heard as a child influenced us as adults, but food is such a big part of how humans interact with each other that I think it has more power than most things.
So as I’m enjoying my cake I’ll be thinking about the lessons being learned by the children at the table and how we are teaching them to be patient, to wait, the share, to think ahead…and, of course, how to bake a cake.
Duct Tape and Dreams 