When I described what happened when I was trying to get a cake baked to my friend, John Bale, he said “That could be material for your next column.” So here it is.

John said he hoped I was wearing an apron for this project. For Spring Fling at my church I offered three homemade cakes to be picked up at my house. They were supposed to be large enough for 12 to 15 people so I planned to use 2 Packages of Duncan Hines yellow cake mix and 2 boxes instant lemon pudding.

Randy Dixon had bid on two of them and he asked if I could do one of them on the Saturday before Father's Day. Of course I could and the pick up time agreed upon was 1:30. While the oven was still heating up at 8AM, my cat was bugging me to let him out. It is better if he goes out later in the day because he is a hunter and the ground animals aren't usually out later. Guess it must be nap time for them at that time.

But TJ was noisily demanding that I let him out so I did which was a mistake because he took off down the driveway after a chipmunk and I took off after him. There have been times when I've pried his mouth open to remove the animal before much damage had been done.

I couldn't find either one of them so I returned to mixing up my cake. Because I had used extra ingredients, the cake was rising to a higher level in the pan and also it took longer to bake so it was tricky getting the middle done but not having the outside done too much but I did it. I cut each piece individually because I couldn't flip it out of the pan because it was so high. Then I sprinkled powder sugar on the top of each piece. Normal people use a big metal can with big holes for that but since I didn't have one of those, I used a salt shaker instead which took forever.

I managed to fit them all on the tray I was using, but I felt they didn't look too neat so my next worry was would Randy and his partner be serving the cake to guests the next day?

My friend Joan Whelan, who also happens to be a member of my church, told me she was sure the cake would be fine and that her mother would tell her that at a bake sale you don't pick out the cake that looks the best because the others are sure to be homemade.

Randy texted me on Father's Day saying how much he and Michael and their two children enjoyed my cake, so all that worrying was for nothing. I doubt if an apron would have helped.