The Cake is just the vehicle……

New introduction….”Shirley” – aka my Mom and Mimi’s daughter.

I had known Wednesday was Sirena’s birthday and thought it would be fun to celebrate with a real cake.  So I called “Shirley”…. and asked for the Maryann’s cake recipe.  At the time, I didn’t know it was Maryann’s cake and even now I have absolutely no idea who Maryann might be.  The only thing I remember is that this cake was the birthday cake my Mom made for me for nearly every one of my birthday’s growing up.

At first, she had simply recommended that I make the cake using Duncan Hine’s chocolate cake mix.  She was immediately admonished for not getting into the spirit of Project Mimi and to atone for her mistake, she had to go find the recipe and send it via email.  Which of course she did, otherwise there would have been no cake.

Funny, but I had forgotten how time consuming the icing is to make for this cake.  It is beaten by hand for about 3 minutes until thick.  I had memories of many a night making fudge for a chocolate fix.  My mother’s pantry is always full of whatever one could possibly need and late night fudge was one of the best treats.

At the end of the evening the cake went home with someone.  And no doubt with much of the icing eaten from the top as all of us picked at it as we did the dishes (with the exception of Patrick Dredden… IT ISNT NORMAL NOT TO LIKE SWEETS).

Lastly, a comment on the “points”… PC was fascinated by the points on the cake- the result of which come from a very cool bundt pan from William’s and Sonoma.

Thanks to Shirley for digging out the recipe that inspired so many memories – especially in that tiny tv room that only sat 4 people….