Birthday Blooper

Well, this week marks my (Mandy's) 30th birthday. I would say that I can't believe I am that old, but if I did it would sound like something my parents would say. I guess you start sounding like them once you reach this age. :) Anyway, Matt wanted to do something special so instead of buying a cake, he attempted to bake his first homemade chocolate cake. I directed him to a fail-proof recipe...a simple sheet cake that stays in the pan. Anyway, Caroline and I went shopping while Matt stayed home with Will and baked the cake. We hurried home so that we could enjoy the cake warm, but found that the cake looked a little odd. We sampled it anyway and discovered that the icing was a bit gritty. I asked Matt what he used and soon discovered he used regular sugar instead of confectioner's sugar to make the icing....oh, what a difference it makes! I must take some blame in the goof up because when he got the box out of the pantry, he asked if that was what he was supposed to use. I glanced briefly and saw it was a yellow box, so I said, it's confectioner's sugar. Well, it wasn't and the cake had to be thrown out. As he was throwing it away he noticed that the filling had white spots in it. I asked if he beat the cake with a mixer and he replied, "No, I beat that thing by hand and it wore me out." What a man! Anyway, he was bound and determined to bake a good cake so Sunday night he was at it again. This time it tasted much better and he used the mixer. But, as luck would have it, the piece I got had a broken egg shell in it. PRICELESS! He then commented, "What are the chances that in a cake this big, you get the piece with the eggshell and you actually find it?" I don't know the answer to that, but it made for a good laugh. I told Matt I was going to write about this on our family blog, and he wasn't thrilled. He was under the impression that this blog was about our kids, but with a husband like him, I'm sure he'll have his share of stories on the site as well.