cake flop

So, it’s my Mom’s 62nd birthday and I’m totally bummed because I didn’t finish the Rambling Rows Afghan I wanted to surprise her with. I had it all planned out about a month and a half before her birthday—plenty of time! Well, not for me…I must be the slowest knitter in the universe. I went to her house looked at all the colors in her living room, bought a box of colored pencils and strategically colored in an afghan layout with the five colors I chose for her beautiful, homemade birthday gift—this was going to be the best surprise ever. I didn’t even pick up another project although they kept calling to me from the other room…Christina you know you want to play with me...I ignored them all. I did, however, secretly read patterns planning my assault on my stash as soon as I finished the afghan. Well a few days before the big day, I realized I was defeated, so I picked up my needles and cast on an easy hat for my grandmother, who is 92, and always cold during a Southern California summer. It only took me an hour or two on big needles, so I wasn’t really cheating was I? Well, maybe I was. I decided to make up for my failure to finish by baking a cake from scratch! I found a recipe in Sunset Magazine and followed the directions exactly. I mixed everything in separate bowls, sifted the flower and powdered sugar, and mixed in the eggs and vanilla when called for instead of dumping everything in one bowl as usual. I was very proud. I didn’t even sneak-a-peak while the cake was baking--these babies were gonna rise to be big and strong! Imagine how sad I was to see two pancake like discs that weighed 5 pounds each arrive from the oven. I thought, well, they must taste good. So I made the frosting, wrapped the afghan, bought some flowers, and felt like I made a good effort. I was really hoping the cake would make up for everything. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I ended up leaving the flowers on my dining room table, the cake tasted like I frosted cardboard, and the afghan was incomplete…was this Karma? What had I done? I couldn’t be grandma’s hat…she was so happy with it. Yes I read patterns, but I didn’t make anything! But, then my mom opened the afghan, and although unfinished, her eyes glistened and a small wet spot appeared and her mascara smudged a little and I realized I didn’t do anything wrong…the afghan was all for her and she knew it. Love emanated from it and we rejoiced in my efforts and laughed at my failures and ate chocolate covered cardboard cake and wrapped ourselves in the half finished afghan.