Birthday Cake and lots of Love

The best sister I could every have, Debbie.

Now I know you are like me in that if someone has a birthday you want to celebrate it.  I am lucky to have one of those great sisters who always is looking our for you.  She did even when I was a kid.  Debbie was always willing to do everything for me especially the most important thing you can do for a young man, COOK.  She made the best cookies, cakes, marinated brisket, and any thing else you can think of.  I would also point out that Jon Tanny Olsen and Eddy Harris seemed to always smell the cookies and showed up just in time.  In fact Mom and Debbie seemed to always like to make things for them.  The fact is both of them seemed so appreciative that it encouraged the cooking even more.

So when it was Debbie's birthday one year Eddy Harris and I decided to make a cake for her.  Quit frankly I am not sure Eddy was any help at all but we did make a mess in the kitchen.  Let me give you a little advice and hint at the end result.   Too much flower or too much of anything can mess up a cake.  What I remember is we added flour when it seemed to thin and when it was too thick we added milk and then we figured we should balance that out with some portion of the other things that were supposed to be put in to that cake.  Did I mention we made it from SCRATCH?  Also I should mention that it was chocolate and of course if you like a little chocolate a lot of chocolate is better.  In fact if you like eggs, one or two extra should make it better.

Well when all was said and done we iced that cake and presented it to Debbie and the family with a rip roaring round of Happy Birthday.  She was very pleased!

Until she tried to cut it things looked great.  I don't remember ever even getting a slice out of it.  I don't even think the icing came off it was so hard.  It was pretty.  

After some laughs Mom took the cake out and gave it to our dog.  The dog laid on the ground trying to chew on the thing and finally gave up.  Have you ever seen a shoe or something a dog has chewed on?  this cake did seem to get a few more rounded edges over time, a long time.   Last I remember it rolled around the back yard for a few weeks and then became a door stop and then later just disappeared.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• More of a good thing is not always best
• What looks good on the outside might not be so good on the inside
• If it smells like chocolate and looks like chocolate does not mean it tastes like chocolate if you cannot chew it
• Sometimes it is best to hire a professional 

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com