Monkey Cakes, Circus Tents and Chocolate Cake Crumbles

Tonight we are celebrating Ed's bday. So, since I've been super into baking, I volunteered to bake the cake. I don't know if its because I feel super maternal or what, but I have really been enjoying baking. I can't wait til I can bake Noah's birthday cakes and watch him blow out his candles.

My mom used to make me really special cakes. One of them was in the shape of my favorite stuffed animal, Lee. He's a giant gorilla that I still sleep with. He's named after Leonardo Da Vinci and I called him Leonardo Da Monkey, even though he's a gorilla. She also got me one in the shape of an old english sheep dog and my other favorite stuffed animal, a pound puppy. I loved celebrating my birthday when I was a kid. My mom would go all out; Rainbow Bright even came to one of my parties, and we played parachute and then Julie Barnet stepped in dog poo and when we ran across the parachute she got poop on it and everytime we'd lift the parachute up and down there was a hint of doo - doo, but that didn't matter. When I got older I would have slumber parties and we'd swim and put on makeup and do our hair. I remember my mom and I picking out all of the "Wet 'n Wild" colors at the grocery store and I felt so important and so special.

My birthday always felt special when I was a kid because I would get to celebrate it twice. Once at my mom's and once at my dad's. I remember one birthday my dad was really proud of the cake he made. It was 4 or 5 layers and he mixed chocolate and vanilla frosting together and then covered it in decorative icing. There was read and blue curls of that really gross icing all over it, it looked like a circus tent. I remember loving that cake.

Something out baking is very comforting and very soothing. Its nice to see something from start to finish that doesn't take 6-9 months to train for, or 4 years to graduate and then another 3 months to study and take a 3-day exam (oh law school ... I will finish and conquer you too, just you wait!). When you take something out of the oven, it's like having a to do list and getting to check off a little box, it's very satisfying.

So, last night I made Ed a chocolate cake ... I won't go in detail about it, because I want it to be a surprise, but let's just say, I wish I could eat chocolate right now, because I would eat the S outta' this thing! Just me, my couch and a fork, and it'd be a party.

It feels really nice to be able to bake things and have them actually turn out. When I was younger I had one of those "Easy Bake Ovens" that would cook things with the light bulb. All you had to do was add water to some mix and then pour it in the pan and voila, there was supposed to be something edible and tasty. Alas, mine were always kind of gross and not very edible. I used to love baking with my mom, but that was really more my mom baking and me helping, so it doesn't count that those things always tasted good.

There was one summer in college. I had come home for the summer and I was staying with my mom and Ed. It was the summer in between my junior and senior year I think. I didn't really have any friends left in town, so I was kinda bored and mopey. So, one day I decided to bake a chocolate cake. Ed volunteered to help me, I think it was because he felt bad for me because I was pretty lame. We mixed everything and measured everything and then put in the pans and baked it... We took the pans out of the oven and let them cool, and then we turned them over they wouldn't come out of the pans. It was so sad. Just chocolate cake crumbles. So, we sat there and picked at the edible part and I felt very defeated.

So tonight, let's hope this cake is better than the chocolate cake crumbles, because at least this one came out of the pan!