Guilt Cake

Yesterday Mark read a story to me:  Sam's Wish.

Sam is six at last.  Mom bakes him a cake.  Kim frosts the cake.  They put the cake on a fine white plate.  Sam makes a wish.  He does not tell his wish.

The story goes on and Sam opens his last present and it's a bike.

Sam likes his bike a lot.  "This bike is so fine.  I will use this bike a lot!  Thank you both so much.  This is the wish that I made."

After the story, Mark was a little taken back that Sam has been five all along (this is not our first Sam story).  Five is almost indecently young for someone who has reached the age of seven.

Mark also looked a bit downcast.

I know I spoil him.  I know.  But I can't stand him sad.  After several inquiries he finally told me that he hadn't made a birthday wish.

I said, "Did you forget?"

He said, "No, I didn't ever get a cake."

We'd had Mark's birthday party at a pool and then at a pizza restaurant.  We've never had a birthday party for Mark at our house...always elsewhere.

Have you met Mark and his friends?

Because if you have, you understand.

For Mark's birthday party, I made cupcakes which I deemed easier to transport.

They're Mark's favorite chocolate with blue frosting (favorite color).  I even added little Lego candies because Legos = Mark's first love.

I know, what a great mother!

Except we didn't have Mark make a wish or blow out candles.

I didn't even think about it, but apparently Mark did.

So yesterday I told Mark I'd make him a birthday cake.

He ran to his room and found the Lego he wanted me to copy for the cake.  He wanted a red cake.

Red?  I don't like overly colored frosting.  Bleck.  I told him it may end up pink.  He looked confidently at me and said, "red."

So I tried.  And it was pink.  I decided to add just a little cocoa powder to darken it (and turn it red?  Remind yourself not to have me mix colors for you.)

It turned out a dusty rose.  A nice hue you haven't seen since the '80s (hopefully).

I added more red and it didn't help.

I apologetically showed it to Mark and he said, "I do have some brown Legos."

After dinner we lit some candles:

Happy Birthday to Me

Mark made his wish and blew out the candles:

The cake wasn't that great.  Too much food coloring in the frosting.  Mark beamed and sang the praises of the cake.  Adam struggled to keep a straight face.

My brother Enoch can coax any number of culinary treats from my mom's kitchen with his smile and charm which has always caused a lot of eye rolling from my sisters and me.

But now I think I get it.

When your son throws his arms around you and tells you you made the best cake in the world, you'd make him a birthday cake any day of the week.