Friday night I was in my mom’s kitchen cooking while my 14-year-old daughter, who I affectionately refer to as Drama Queen, “helped.” My mom was out of town and to be perfectly honest I prefer her kitchen to what I have to cook in, so we commandeered her place for a while.
As I was assembling a feast of tri-tip sandwiches, grilled corn, roasted peppers and other assorted tastiness, my daughter asked if she could bake a cake. Looking around at the mess I figured what the hell and asked what she had in mind. DQ mentioned that grandma had a strawberry cake mix and some strawberry frosting plus the strawberries we bought on the way over.
“OK,” I said. “I see where you’re going with this. Break it down for me.”
“Huh?” She replied.
“Break it…” I said while rolling my eyes. “It means, uh, to tell me what you want to do.”
I was informed that grandma has two heart shaped cake pans and that my daughter wanted to make two cakes and put sliced fresh strawberries between the two. Thus the three layers are the “triple” in Triple Strawberry Cake. Of course the three types of strawberry (cake, frosting, fresh) could also be the triple. Use whichever you prefer.
Her Majesty followed the directions on the box and with a little help got the batter distributed evenly into to greased heart shaped pans. We popped the cakes in the oven as we popped tri tip sandwiches into our bellies and after letting the cakes cool off crossed our fingers and hoped that nothing stuck to the pan.
We dodged a bullet when both cakes came out clean and as she began placing sliced strawberries on the first layer, I suggested putting a thin layer of frosting for the strawberries to grab on to. After that it was another thin layer of frosting on the bottom of the second layer to once again make sure the strawberries didn’t move around. At least that’s the story I was giving my daughter.
At this point you’re probably saying, “Dude (or whatever name you would use) this is a box cake with store bought frosting. What’s so special about this?”
It was special because of the bonding moment we had while working on this and because of the fact that my daughter would rather bake a cake with her old man than go to Hulu and watch Glee or some other girlie show. The secret ingredient in this cake is love and love makes every recipe better.
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Aw! Love does make every recipe better…and it’s awesome that she wanted to bake the cake with you. My daughter just tells me to let her know when the cake is done!
This is just adorable. And for the record, I see nothing wrong with store bought cake and store bought frosting. WAY less bowls to clean up. Plus — fresh strawberries!!! I love that she wanted to spend that time with you. She’s going to remember that for a long time, I guarantee it.
You guys did a great job! I love it when my kids want to bake with me.