That was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and I will bake one more cake in my lifetime - when Bob is brought home.
I was inspired by sweet Mom Jennifer Ramsaran here on WS and her homemaking skills, to bake a cake for Bob. Jennifer is deceased, with her husband charged with her murder, but WSers found her little postings of baking and babies and knitted bonnets. So moving. So simple. But what a beautiful legacy of kindness and caring.
But Jennifer could cook, and I forgot that I couldn't. I struggle with boiled potatoes.
I bought a packet mix, but threw the instructions away in my huge recycling bin before I read them and had to retrieve them. In the middle of baking, our town flooded. I took it out of the oven too soon, and had to put it back in. It took me forever to realise when decorating a cake, you are supposed to slice off the raised top, then turn it over - hey presto, flat surface! I baked a lovely multi-colored cake without thinking I was covering it with frosting and the colors would be hidden.
It is finished now and it is about half as nice as I would like it to be. But it is ready for Bob's birthday tomorrow. Mr Z has eaten the bits I sliced off and he says it's nice. I can't face eating at the moment - I'm still recovering.
If Bob isn't brought home by his next birthday I'm going to do something less stressful to mark the event. Parachuting out of a plane maybe, or skiing down a mountain backwards.