Day 10

Day 10
March 10th, 2009
30-Day Challenge
Picture submitted by: Mike Boyce

Jell-O Cake

“helo, my name is Hilda.  I like Martha Stewart and I want to gro up to be liek her.  she is the best.  I am makeing a cook book, just like Martha Stewart.  my frist resipe is one that I mad up all by myself.  it is jelo cake, and I liek it very much.  I hope you do to.

first to make my jelo cake, you get teh ingridients.  they are jelo flowr shuger milk water buter vanila and salt.  My mother alwas uses salt and I dont no why, but I wil use it to.  o, and egs.  she alwas uses thos to.”

Hilda finished writing the beginning of her first best-seller in her best penmanship.  She lay her pen down carefully, thinking.  It wouldn’t do to leave her first recipe untested.  Truth be told, she had just made it up today and thought the combination sounded wonderful.  She picked up her piece of paper and headed to the kitchen, ready to ask her mother for help.  Her mother loved to cook, so Hilda knew that she could most often find her in the kitchen.  Sure enough, there was her mother, standing in front of the open refrigerator, seeing what she had inside.  Hilda trotted up to her.

“Mami, can you help me make a cake?”

Cristina looked away from the well-stocked refrigerator to face her daughter.  “Sure, honey.  What kind of cake do you want to bake?”

Hilda said the words slowly, proudly.  “Jell-O cake!”

Cristina blinked a couple of times, then noticed the piece of paper Hilda held.  She gently took it from her daughter’s hands and looked at it.  “Is this your recipe?”  Hilda nodded, and Cristina smiled.  Hilda had probably thought of her two favorite desserts and combined them into an idea for the greatest concoction of which she could think.  Cristina marveled at the fact that Hilda had a good grasp on what ingredients belonged in a cake.  She let her hand fall as she gazed at the window, thinking.

“Mami?  Can we make it?”  Hilda looked at her mother anxiously.  She shifted her weight from one foot to another, in a kind of impatient dance.

Cristina grinned.  “Of course, my heaven.  If we start it now, we’ll have it done in time for the women’s Bible study this evening.  Then you can tell them you made it yourself.”  Her grin widened as Hilda let out a whoop of joy and ran to the drawer that contained her very own chef’s apron. 

When she had tied the straps into a neat little bow, Hilda looked at her mother expectantly.  “What do I do first?”

Cristina put her hands on her hips in mock anger.  “What do you mean, ‘What do I do?’  You are the head chef today!”

Hilda giggled.  “Ok, sous-chef!  First we wash our hands.”  As they rinsed their hands in the sink, Hilda leaned toward Cristina and whispered, “What’s next?  I forget.”

“We gather the ingredients and lay them out,” whispered Cristina.

“Oh, yeah.”  Hilda rose her voice and said, in the most important voice she could muster, “Sous-chef, first we gather the ingredients.”

They laid on the table the flour, sugar, salt, a stick of butter, three large eggs, vanilla, a jug of milk, and two boxes of Jell-O.  Cristina slipped in a container of baking powder.  While Hilda mixed the flour, salt, and baking powder with a whisk, Cristina set the oven for 350 degrees.  Next, Cristina pulled out the electric mixer and beat the butter and sugar until it looked so fluffy that Hilda compared it to a cloud.  Hilda poured in the vanilla and watched it combine, then added the flour and milk, alternately, until they had a smooth cake batter.

“Can I add the Jell-O now, sous-chef?”

“How about if we bake the cake, first, and then add the Jell-O?”

Hilda made a face.

“Trust me?” asked Cristina.

“Ok.”

So they poured the batter into two greased and floured pans.  These went into the oven to bake.  They sat down to rest and laugh at each other’s flour-flecked faces.  Hilda smudged some more flour on her mother’s face with her finger.

“How long will it cook?”

“Oh, I’d say about twenty-three minutes.  Not too much longer than that.”

“Ok.”  Hilda set her hands on her lap and looked at them for a few seconds.  She looked back up to her mother.  “Mami, can I go play while it cooks?”

“Of course.  But be back before it’s done, or I’ll let it burn.”  Cristina warned. 

She would, too, Hilda knew.  She nodded, pulled her apron off and laid it carefully on her chair.  She washed her hands, and then went out to play.  Twenty minutes later, she had returned, with another piece of paper.  She placed it on one of the kitchen chairs, out of the way, and went to put her apron on.  She washed her hands, and picked up some oven mitts.  “Is it ready?”

Cristina stifled her curiosity and turned her attention to the oven.  “I don’t know.  Let’s check.”  She grabbed a toothpick, opened the oven, and poked the cake.  It came out nearly clean.  Cristina looked at it critically.  “What do you think, head chef?”

Hilda examined the toothpick, too.  “Five more minutes,” she decided.

Cristina nodded.  “I agree.”

Five minutes later, the toothpick came out clean, and they pulled the cakes out of the oven to let them cool.  While they cooled, Hilda heated water in the microwave.  When it had heated, she prepared two batches of Jell-O in separate bowls.  Cristina and Hilda each took a cake and poked holes in them with forks.  Next, they poured the bowls of Jell-O on the cakes.  Cristina allowed Hilda to clear space in the refrigerator, and then put each of the cakes in.  While Hilda did this, Cristina strolled to one of the kitchen chairs and picked up the piece of paper on it.

“helo, my name is Hilda.  I like my mother and I want to gro up to be liek her.  she is the best.  I am makeing a cook book, just like my mother.  my frist resipe is one that I mad up all by myself.  it is jelo cake, and I liek it very much.  I hope you do to.”

Hilda turned just time to see her mother smear flour all over her face, trying to wipe away a tear.