The Cake

Having no choice, I was forced to leave work at 2:45 yesterday, in order to go home and frost the cake. My assistant, S~, thought this was hysterical. However, she also looked relieved because this also meant I would stop putting files on her desk for her to work on. So, it was kind of a bonus for both of us. :-)

Anyway, I came home, and made the frosting. Four pounds of powdered sugar, a pound of butter and various other sundry ingrediants and a small breakdown/freak out (regarding the fact that the cake was melting) on my part, resolved by Husband putting the cake in the freezer for half an hour and our taking a 30 minute respite in the pool, we finished frosting the mildly frozen cake (much easer that way).

The cake was very plain - two 9x13 cakes, stacked on top of eachother, with a layer of frosting between, covered in sunny yellow icing. Plain, but, evidently tasty, since it is all gone. There are two eggless chocolate cupcakes left over, but, I must confess, eggless chocolate cake is kind of dry. My niece, the one who is allergic to eggs, seemed to like them, though, and several of her cousins ate them as well, which is good because it doesn't make her feel quite so left out and/or different. (She is severely and dangerously allergic to both eggs and all soy products, so, her diet is very limited, which is hard, I think, when you are 11 years old, and have to read the ingrediants of every single thing you put in your mouth.)

Anyway, I would say the surprise birthday party was a success, and it was good to see everybody. My aunt K~, the one who is living in China for two years, said she will try to meet us in Hanoi when we are there to get Lana*, which I think will be nice. (She also looks almost like my mom's twin, although they are not twins, they look very very much alike. We joked that we could tell Lana that she was meeting Grandma...(my son and my nieces and nephews usually call her "the other Grandma" when they see her, because she does look so much like my mom.)

Well, that's about all there is to report,

LM

*although Lana is living in Da Nang, we will have to travel from DaNang to Hanoi in order to get her visa from the US Embassy, in order for us to leave the country.