From the back porch - 7/31/2019 - Summer shenanigans

When I typed the date in the subject line of this post, I could hardly believe the month is almost over.  School will be starting next week.  Where has this year gone?

Our granddaughters from across the state were able to come "home" a couple of times this summer, and we've enjoyed their visit.  Two weekends ago, we had a birthday party for the Middle Granddaughter, who is turning 9.  It was a pool party, and hot as blue blazes.  My job for the party was to provide the birthday cake.  When I asked the birthday girl whether she wanted a fancy store-bought cake or a home-made cake, she asked for an Orange Crush Cake like I'd made for her a couple of years ago.  "With sprinkles!" she said.  Can do.  She and her sisters were eager to assist with the baking, and we whipped up the cake on Friday afternoon for the Saturday party:  Orange Crush Cake with a thick layer of Cream Cheese Frosting.  Mmmmm!  We decorated it with those sugar "Happy Birthday" letters that you get in the grocery store, the kind that you peel off of paper sheets.  Worried that  sprinkles would fade or dissolve overnight, we decided to put them on at the party.   

We put the cake in my vintage cake cover - one of those metal ones that has a little lever that operates clamps that hold the top and bottom together - and stuck it in the refrigerator.  The next morning, I transferred the cake to a large cooler filled with ice in hopes of keeping the frosting from melting in the heat.

We arrived at the party about an hour early to help set up.  Granddaughter #1, age 14, met us at the car to help unload the lawn chairs and other things we'd brought.  When it was time to unload the cooler, I decided to take the cake out of the cooler to avoid jostling it on the trip to the table.  We set the cooler on the ground, and I picked the cake cover up by its handle.  I'd no sooner lifted the cake cover out of the cooler than the clamps let go.  The bottom fell off, and the cake dumped upside down on the grass, with me standing there in shock with the top in my hand.

My heart dropped to my feet.  Before the cake even hit the ground, I pictured myself buying a birthday cake from the grocery store, but I also pictured my granddaughter's disappointment.  She had stirred the batter and licked the spoon.  She was looking forward to putting on the sprinkles.  That was HER cake I'd wrecked.

Then, some crazy instinct took over, and I grabbed the cake off the ground and slapped it back onto the cake cover base.  To my utter surprise, the cake had stayed intact (mostly).  And it had been on the ground less than 5 seconds.  ;)

We set the cake on the tailgate to inspect the damage.  The frosting had nearly frozen in the cooler, and it had held the layers together as if they were hermetically sealed.  Only a few blades of grass had stuck to it.  Except for the ragged ring of cake crumbs around the bottom of the cake, it looked just like it looked when we'd put it in the refrigerator the day before.  This disaster could be salvaged. 

I glanced around.  Everyone else was going about their business.  Nobody had witnessed the tragedy.

I looked at Granddaughter #1 and said, "OK, we can fix this.  DON'T YOU SAY A WORD!" 

She giggled and said, "I won't." 

Right there on the tailgate, we snatched the "Happy Birthday" letters off the cake, picked off the grass, and skinned a micro-thin layer off the frosting.  With the letters back on, and a dusting of sparkly sugar and sprinkles, one would hardly know the cake had been wrecked. 

Granddaughter #1 and I looked at each other with mischief in our eyes and proudly delivered the cake to the table. 

She did not say a word about it.  Neither did I.  But we grinned at each other every time someone took a piece of cake. 

The birthday girl was a little disappointed that she had not been asked to do the sprinkles.  I forget how we explained that away.  ;)

After the party, I brought home what was left of the birthday cake and put it back in the refrigerator. 

Two days later, I texted Granddaughter #1:  "Want some birthday cake?"

She said, "Sure!" 

I took the rest of the cake to her other grandmother's house, where they were staying.  Everyone was milling about in the yard.  While Granddaughter #1 took the cake inside, I sat down on the lawn swing to chat with her "Nanny."  The former birthday girl and sister #3 were playing at a nearby mudhole. 

I had been silently debating about whether to spill the secret, myself, now that it was all over with.  On the one hand, I did not want to sully the birthday girl's memory of her cake.  On the other, from Granddaughter #1's perspective, what good is knowing that your little sister's birthday cake got dumped on the ground and served, anyway, if your little sister doesn't know it?  Or is it even better if she DOESN'T know it?

When #1 came out of the house, within earshot of Nanny and the little sisters, I asked her, "Did you tell the secret, yet?"  She grinned and replied, "Nope."

Naturally, the birthday girl and #3 (age 5) yelled, "WHAT SECRET?"

In the end, we spilled it.  As I had hoped, birthday girl took the news with her usual grace and good humor.  #1 laughed and laughed.  #3, who, only moments earlier had been building fake dog turds out of mud, said, "EWWWWWWW!"