Elle Casey

I turned a new age today.  No more details – I’ll let you live with the fantasy that I’m 28 and viciously beautiful with a perfect hourglass figure.

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My mom made me a birthday cake even though I said I wasn’t going to celebrate until my husband returned home.  When I first saw it on the counter I disregarded it, almost like I didn’t even register that this was a birthday cake.  I think my subconscious knew before I really knew – Mom and her recipe tweaking had struck again.

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She used to make these angel food confections for my birthdays that had this fluffy whipped cream pink topping made from strawberry jello mix.  The cake would have multi-colored sprinkles baked into the batter, making it look like a party favor had exploded inside.  They were gorgeous and delicious, round and pink.

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This cake was round.  And it was pink, yes.  But something was wrong with the frosting.  It looked sad, depressed even…sliding down the cake to lay in piles on the plate below.  The strawberries that had been mixed into the frosting looked like they’d been in a bar fight.

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After dinner we cut into the cake.  Interesting.  The first thing I noticed was that there was something keeping the knife from cutting through.  A two-handed grip was used and proved successful in dividing up the pieces amongst the diners.  The second thing I noticed was that the sprinkles inside had all joined together in one spot, about midway through the cake, like survivors clinging together on a sinking ship.

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The entire top layer of the cake was not the fluffy, white, angel food I remembered from years past.  In its place was about a three quarter inch layer of white gummy bear material.  Did my mother put gummy bears in the cake, you ask?  No, she did not.  Did my mother use gelatin in my cake you ask?  No, she did not.  Rather, because she could not find her angel food pan, she used a silicon rubber pan to bake the cake instead.

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Who’da thought that the type of pan used would turn out to be so critical?  Apparently, an angel food pan allows the fluffy cake to rise to its full height, and it is designed to cool in an upside down position to make sure the cake doesn’t fall or compact down onto itself.  For future reference, a compacted angel food cake, is a lot like a large, white, somewhat grainy, gummy bear.

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Everyone liked their Gummy Bearish Cake, and truth be told, only one piece now remains.  Thanks for the birthday memories Mom!  (email me for the recipe)

In: Family | | #