This morning I woke up and decided that I would make a nice home-cooked meal for my family. Michelle was tired from staying up too late a partying with the Johnsons and I wanted to surprise her and pleasure of not having to wake up just to wait on the family. So I set out to get breakfast prepared and in the oven.
First things first, I went to the recipe box and found the recipe for Breakfast Cake. With the recipe in hand I began to assemble the necessary ingredients and supplies. That is where everything began to fall apart! The recipe calls for an 8 inch square pan. No problem, we own one of those but I couldn't find it in any cupboard, counter or dirty dish pill! I finally realized that we had just used this pan the night before to take dinner to a new mommy (Lisa Blanchard) in the ward.
Next, I pulled out all of the ingredients for making my Breakfast Cake when I hit problem number 2, the recipe calls for shortening and our container of shortening was missing in action. How do you make Breakfast Cake without all of the ingredients? I was already concerned about the "cut in the shortening" part but now I didn't even have the shortening to be concerned about.
So I'm struggling here trying to figure out how to make the wonderful Breakfast Cake and feeling a little helpless. At this point anyone familiar with cooking would know that there is no problem here. But my lack of recent cooking experience has left my resourcefulness center (in my brain) a little rusty. At that very moment of great alarm Michelle wakes up and comes walking into the kitchen to see what is going on and take inventory of "fires" that need to be put out already this morning. She sees me standing in the kitchen with a counter full of ingredients and a perplexed and dumbfounded look on my face and asked the simple question, "what are you doing?"
Her simple solutions to my perplexing dilemma leave me feeling sheepish as she explains that I can use a different pan and that she has modified this recipe to use vegetable oil instead of shortening (because the vegetable oil is healthier for you). Problem solved and off I go to create my delectable masterpiece.
Since I want to have boiled eggs with our breakfast I go ahead and get the eggs on to boil while I finish putting the Breakfast cake together. BIG MISTAKE! The eggs only take 10 minutes to boil and the Breakfast Cake takes 25 minutes to cook. That means the eggs will be done and cold before we get to eat breakfast. (At one time I would have remembered that.)
Just as I'm about to begin mixing the ingredients for the Breakfast Cake Michelle, who has decided it best not to leave me unsupervised in the kitchen, directs me to make the topping first. "But it doesn't say that on the recipe," I reply. "Not everything is one the recipe card. Some things you just know from experience." Alas, my great deficiency in the kitchen is a lack of experience. So I quickly put the topping together and set it aside for later.
As I begin to mix the ingredients for the Breakfast Cake I begin adding the all of the dry ingredients, the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. I didn't realize that is what I was doing until I was about to add the vegetable oil and Michelle stopped me in mid-pour. Apparently your supposed to mix the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients, and then mix them together. No harm done...I quickly mixed the dry ingredients in the bowl and then added the oil, milk and egg. I quickly whipped that together and I'm on my way.
By now the eggs are done boiling and I'm washing a new pan to bake my Breakfast Cake in. It takes a couple minutes to prepare the pan and as I'm drying it Michelle reminds me that I need to do the flour trick so the cake doesn't stick. It wasn't on the recipe card but I should have known this from experience. Easy enough, I prepare the pan and go to pour the cake into the pan. But something has happened to my batter and it isn't quite as pour-friendly as I would have preferred. Again, having the pan prepared and the oven pre-heating (which Michelle had done for me when I wasn't looking) are things you do before mixing the ingredients together.
I scrape out the cake batter into the pan, help the batter make it to the four corners of the pan and then sprinkle the topping on and I'm ready to go! I put the pan in the oven and set the timer for 25 minutes. But Michelle saves the day by turning the pan so it's not in the oven at an angle. Who knew? An oven doesn't have exactly even heating in every space and so the back will be hotter than the front at times (or something like that). If I had left the pan in the oven at an angle I could've had over cook front and undercooked back. As I sit back for a moment I begin to wonder, "since I'm not using the cake pan from the recipe, will the cooking time change as well?" Michelle is there to save my day. Upon visual examination she was able to determine that our pan required just 21 minutes of baking instead of 25!
I was elated. We had finally reached to moment of peak anticipation as we prepare to eat this home-baked meal. I rounded up the boys and we sat down to eat as the cake was ready to emerge from the oven. The boys each had a boiled egg to start and each boy was eyeing their egg eagerly but had to wait for the prayer (to bless the food). As the amen sounded loud and clear, each boy tore into their egg and I removed the Breakfast Cake from the oven. As I head to the table with my prize cake in front of me Michelle directs me to place the cake outside!
No why would I want to do that? Because you can't serve the cake right out of the oven; it needs some time to cool. Again, just a little experience would have let me know that vital piece of information. So the boys quickly devour their first cold egg and are diving into the second. The cake isn't cooling nearly fast enough. With the second egg gone each boys is demanding more food and I can't give them anything so I panic and pull more eggs from the fridge, through them in a pot and start boiling a few more eggs to satisfy the ravages of hunger sweeping through the house. Michelle relents and allows me to get the cooling Breakfast Cake before it was cool enough and we cut it up and pass it out to our starving boys (growing boys think their starving if they experience any hunger pains at all). The gobble down the food, asking for more.
With only a single piece of Breakfast Cake remaining, the eggs finish boiling and are ready for consumption. At that pinnacle moment the boys finally decide that they have had enough to eat. They clear their plates, throw the egg shells away and wash their hands. They have been satisfied with my masterful creation. I revel in the "Thank you Daddy" that each boy echos.
Despite the fact that I created this breakfast in almost perfect "reverse" order we still had an enjoyable moment, "breakfast as a family." Of course I'm better prepared and more experienced for my next culinary adventure. So the next time I will be able to surprise Michelle (in a good and pleasant way)!
