How Cake Mountain was Born

See, what had happened was...

I had this amazing vision in my head of the perfect birthday cake. And not just any birthday. My only daughter's Sweet 16.

Now, don't get me wrong: all four of the boys' 16th birthdays were just as special, but the girl...well, girls have a SWEET 16, and boys don't really like the whole "sweet" thing...more like Studly16, which now that I see it in print looks completely ridiculous, but I digress. I do that a lot, so you might as well get used to it from the get-go.

Being very practically minded, Rosie wouldn't hear of me paying $70. for a cake from the local bakery. Why do that when we can make it ourselves? she asked. Of course, I replied.

Of course.

I saw this going much, much differently in my head.

What i pictured was what the Google images search pictured: lovely square layers stacked on one another, icing smooth and shiny, flowers trailing delicately down the corners.

Not so much.

I didn't count on the entire thing caving in on itself before I even got to the top layer.

Matt tried to help. He was sure we could salvage it. He went to work.

He worked while Rosie stood a few steps back with her hand clasped tightly over her mouth. "I can fix Cake Mountain, Mom. No worries."

I didn't think it was possible, but it got worse.

I sank into my office chair and wept.

Rosie was laughing so hard she was crying.

I seriously wanted to go Grammy on it and rip it asunder. It couldn't have looked any worse.

Rosie, trying her hardest to stifle the laughter, kept saying, "Mama, please don't cry. Really. This is funny! Ma, please? One day we will all be laughing about this together..."

"Yeah? Well it is not this day!" I sobbed.

I could tell that both Matt and Rosie were about to pull a gut muscle trying not to laugh, which eventually made me laugh, and then we all laughed. And cried.

And then it hit me. I've got two hours to bake a new cake for this party, limited supplies, and no car to go to the store. Fun stuff.

But God binds up the broken-hearted, especially moms crazy enough to think they can bake the perfect tiered birthday cake with absolutely no training whatsoever, so by His mercy I set to work and showed up at the party with a new cake.

And that, Lord bless us all, is how Cake Mountain was born.