How to make a chocolate cake.

Cass is feeling unloved. I swear I don't know how children talk themselves into these things. I figured she needed some time doing something she really likes with me as I've completely ruined her holiday by limiting her t.v time, her computer time & then insisting she both read & do her music practise! What was I thinking?!

Anyway, she has been agitating to cook chocolate cake for weeks. This apparently simple request was complicated by the fact Theo took my no~fail cookbook to school one day (yes, I know that was years ago!) & it never came home & the fact Cass' book has mysteriously ended up with all it's pages glued shut. I'm not even asking!

So we go on line & come up with a 'to die for' chocolate cake. The only thing we don't have in the cupboards is the dark chocolate. No problemo. I prepare Liddy her lunch & we plan to buy the chocolate when we take her lunch up. I'm a little uptight as it's not a recipe I know & I've not had heaps of success with these sorts of recipes but both Cass & I can read, right? I figure we can follow simple directions without too much trouble.

We walk into the store & the boss' son swarms all over Cass & announces he's coming to our house to paint. Really? Not without mummy's say so, bucko. He tells us mummy says yes. I love these ones. I can just see me walking out of the store with a child I don't own on child's say so. Thankfully mum then appears to be floored by her son's request & also highly embarrassed. I understand that. On the other hand I figure it's not much fun for the kiddo to spend his holidays at the shop. So we come home with chocolate & an extra child.

Cass gets down her minature project to show him. (yes, all right! I'll post some piccies given an eon or two to get my act together in.) This is a built to 1/12th scale model of a toyshop & the ladies have all spoilt Cass outrageously by contributing to it, to the point it has a workable light & a perspex front. Cass has made the shop & nearly all the toys. Our visitor was fascinated & treated everything very gently. I'm not a minatures person but Paul Bishop ( a t.v. celebrity Cass worked with during choir) had a longish chat with her about how the skills she was learning in minatures were the same ones used in set designing but the amount of mess it generates is phenomenal! Another post all on it's own.

Anyway we leave the boy running the tiny train around the roof of the toy shop & proceed to make cake. Cass is not good with directions; impatience is a major drawback & I'm already trying to melt chocolate in the double boiler we don't have. (yes, you read that right.) Does she have to put in the whole of all 4 eggs? Does it say to separate them? Well, then, put in the whole egg. Honestly. At which point we acquire the extra child. Cass is great. She props him on the stool & proceeds to read the directions to him & he puts everything in the mixer. Cass has it on high so the poor kid is half suffocated, chocking on cocoa dust. He promptly turns from very fair to a darkish shade of brown. The cat arrives because, hey, everyone's in the kitchen. I eye the 10 or so steps between the stove & the mixer with some trepidation. I have a panful of melted chocolate that needs folding into the mixture. Cass grabs the cat & tells our visitor to sit very still. He wants to do the folding. (about here I need an eye roll emoticon) We negotiate ~ very carefully. Giving my own child 3rd degree burns I can cope with; someone else's is another matter entirely! I've never been so pleased to see a cake go in the oven!

I turn round thinking about cleaning up to find paintbrushes & jars of water have now joined the pots & bowls & opened jars on my bench & painting is in progress. Both children have scraped the bowls & beaters so have effectively had chocolate for lunch.

The cake was beautiiiful. We returned the child to its owner covered in chocolate, paint & red dirt from the garden & much happier. I meditated on the unusual ways God invites us to minister to others.

Our house is not the tidiest around & if you've been reading this blog for a while my lack of organization probably boggles your mind but I remind myself these days of a friend whose children I minded while he dealt with a court case. It was a custody issue & dragged on & on so he sent his 2 kids elsewhere one day to give me a break. He only did it once & offended the other woman terribly because she'd been in my house & was not impressed! 'But,' this man protested, 'when I leave my kids with you & arrive to collect them all the kids are in the yard after dark screaming their heads off, unwashed, unfed & beside themselves. I leave them with Jeannie & when I arrive they're washed, fed, have stuff to show me that they've made & lots to tell that they've done. I don't care if Jeannie hasn't swept her floor & I bet the kids don't either.' Now I like a neat & tidy house as much as the next person but I am much more likely to put people before appearances, which may be why I get a ministry of chocolate cake & poster paints!