When Karla and I were at Reinhardt, one of our friends decided to move. Our group decided to throw her a good-bye party. Karla and I were asked to make the cake. Happily, we agreed. Our friend Stephen was a RD at the school, and he had a complete kitchen. He left us at his pad to make our creation.
We decided to make a chocolate cake with a white 7 minute frosting. This was one of my mom’s signature cakes. The frosting required a double boiler, which of course a bachelor did not own. So we improvised. I filled a large sauce pan with water and put a Teflon pan on top filled with the egg yolks and other ingredients. It worked! The water below heated the mixture, and we beat it for the required seven minutes as it formed stiff peaks. We quickly iced the cake and headed to the car, as not to be late for the party.
Driving to Pizza Hut, Karla remarked, “What are these black dots in the icing?”“Oh, I bet a few crumbs flaked into the icing.” We didn’t take the time to decrumb the cake, like I had learned in my cake decorating class.
“No, I don’t think so. Look at it in the sunlight! The icing is full of black specs.”
On closer inspection I realized she was right. “Oh my gosh! It’s the pan. It’s the Teflon. The beaters must have knocked the non-scratch lining off into the icing.”
“Donna, what do we do? We can’t serve this to people. They will be eating Teflon chips!” Karla exclaimed.
Our Lips are Sealed
“We have to bring a cake! We don’t have time to get another one. They will never know.”
“Ok. Our lips are sealed, but I’ve heard Teflon is bad for you.”
After the pizza and presents, we sliced the cake. As our friend Kim passed out pieces, we kept silent. She sat a plate of poison in front of each of us. Everyone was digging in. “This is delicious! Great cake, girls. What kind of icing is this?”
We looked at each other, took deeps breaths and I replied, “chocolate chip.”We sat there smiling.
Stephen questioned, “Aren’t ya’ll going to eat it?”
We silently communicated, “Do we eat it?” “What if we get sick?” Karla and I stared at each other like Thelma and Louise did while preparing to drive over the cliff. We placed a bite on our forks, and together we ate it.
Our apologies to these friends, who at this moment at just discovering our secret.
–Donna
Giggling, my mind drifted to the stickers the girls stuck not only on the two dozen, pre-boiled eggs but on the hotel furniture as well. Then, I laughed out loud at myself for struggling to blow out those egg yolks into the toilet, which left me staggering light-headedly down for hours! I shook my head at the thought of stains left on the carpet from paint. All because I thought egg dye would be too messy!
road Street, I glanced up at the courthouse clock, and to my surprise, the hands were gone. That’s what we all need sometimes: a clock without hands. We need no rushing, and no time restraints. Of course in our fast-paced world that’s not really possible. We have jobs, family, obligations and many other things that require us to follow a clock. But I am trying to take a few minutes each day to look around and what God has given.