A birthday cake that was baked on a dare
Photo credit to Pixabay
Just a fun story for Saturday.
When I was a teenager, my friend, Eva, had a natural talent for cooking and baking, and everyone in my class was pretty jealous of her. Our mothers always had the sour expression on their faces when Eva's mom bragged about the delicious food Eva cooked but our moms had nothing to brag about.
Eva's fourteenth birthday was coming up, and she relentlessly teased Gabi and me about the stir-fry disaster she had witnessed us cooking when she came over to my house, unannounced. Gabi got angry and hastily promised Eva that we will bake her a birthday cake. Eva had a smirk on her face and said, "You're on. My birthday party is Saturday, bake me a cake, you too, I dare you!"
I got mad at Gabi making a foolish promise and yelled at her, "Have you lost your mind? She's gonna laugh and tease us for thirty years if we mess it up, and we will, I know it."
"We can do it, no worries! We'll show her!" Gabi said, but her voice didn't sound too confident.
So, Saturday morning, Gabi came over to my house to bake the cake. We didn't want to ask for help and my mom was on a business trip, so we had the entire kitchen to ourselves. We read mom's recipe at least ten times, and then we followed it down to the letter. I mixed the yolks with sugar, Gabi beat the egg whites, and then we folded the flour, baking and cocoa powder, and poured the mixture into the cake pan.
Gabi carefully picked up the pan to put it in the oven, but then she hissed angrily and put the pan back on the counter, "The oven is cold! Why didn't you turn it on?"
"Oh, no!" I shouted. "I thought you did!" I rushed to the stove and turned the oven on.
"It's okay, let's put the cake in," Gabi said.
"No, we're supposed to preheat the oven before we put the batter in. Look, it says so on the recipe."
"Okay, then let's wait."
Finally, when the oven reached the right temperature, we put the cake mix in and set the timer. Then we made the frosting. We mixed powdered sugar with butter and cocoa powder, and when it turned creamy, we put it in the fridge to chill.
The timer went off, and we put the cake on the cooling rack, both of us feeling proud of how beautiful it looked. We decided to watch a movie while the cake cooled enough ready for frosting. After half an hour or so, Gabi went out to the kitchen to check the cake.
"Oh, my God!" I heard her scream and I rushed to the kitchen to check on her, thinking that she fell or something. "Look at that!" she cried out pointing at the cake. "The middle of the cake totally caved in!"
I stood frozen, staring at the miserable looking cake. "It's because the mix was sitting there too long. We should have preheated the oven. Mom always turns the oven on before she starts mixing the ingredients. What are we going to do?"
Gabi stared at me for a few seconds and then her eyes wandered over the kitchen utensils and she said, "I have an idea. You have that large, glass syringe over there that your mom uses to inject juice into the turkey before she bakes it. Why don't we fill it up with pudding and inject it inside the cake. It will fill up that crater and we won't even need to cut the cake to put the frosting inside."
"Okay, it sounds good to me, let's do it. But, oh no!" I cried out. "I ate the chocolate pudding and we only have the cherry pudding mom made yesterday."
"That will do," Gabi decided.
The cake looked beautiful by the time we filled it up with pudding and frosted it. We put it in a cake box and headed over to Eva's house. She was impressed when she saw the cake and placed it on the table. Gabi and I were proud as peacocks. When all the guests arrived, Gabi lit the candles and put the cake in front of Eva. We sang, Eve made a wish and blew the candles.
"Cut the cake," Gabi said and handed the large cake knife to Eva.
Eva pierced the middle of the cake and started slicing when the knife sank into the cake and dark red cherry pudding started flowing like lava onto the cake plate.
Gabi and I stared at the plate feeling horrified, but luckily, Eva smiled and said, "I love it! I've never seen a lava cake with red lava. Thank you, guys!"
We gathered around and ate the cake with spoons instead of forks, and Eva didn't tease us because the unintentional lava cake tasted delicious.
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My story about how my crepes got eaten by cats
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And read about Grace's strawberry pie disaster
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COMMENTS
I loved it! You see? The best ideas are those that come from improvising.
Yes, Gabi was great with improvising and getting us out of sticky situations with her quick thinking and wits. I was petrified when the "lava" started to flow but luckily, this cake disaster turn into success :)
Erika M. Szabo shares a true story about a cake baked on a dare. PRICELESS!!
Thank you Ruth, it was quite an experience to remember :)
And..... Did you get the kitchen cleaned up before Mom got home? LOL, I LOVE this story! Thank you so much for sharing!
Haha! We did try, but my mom was in the middle of rewashing the mixing bowls when I got home :)
What a delightful story about a cake that almost wasn't but turned into a delicious lava cake with no one the wiser. Nice memory that came out positive. PS: Out of state starting tomorrow.
Yes, it was a memorable experience ;)
What a sweet, fun story! The things we do on a dare....lol
I was ready to strangle Gabi for taking the dare, but I had no choice, I had to go with it :)
It IS a fun story! Birthday cake: one of the 5 major food groups.
Chocolate cake is definitely one of the major food groups :)
I am rolling as I read this! You mad have just been the first one to invent pudding cake. I use to have so many cake disasters it's not funny! Seems like no one bakes like our moms.
Can you imagine how scared I was when the "lava" started to flow? Eva was a popular girl and pictures ran through my mind when the knife sunk into the cake about how she would make fun of us and would never let us forget our cake disaster :)
+Erika M Szabo I can just imagine. I've had a few cake disasters in my early years. LOL
Today, Erika M Szabo, shares an explosive story about teenagers trying to bake a cake. Enjoy.
#OurAuthorGang
Yup, the cake that collapsed and had been pumped up ;)
On a dare she baked a memorable birthday cake . . . check out Erika M. Szabo's fun little story, today on
#OurAuthorGang.
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