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Dear Reader,
This past Saturday was a big baking day at my house. My neighbor hired Paul, my 8-year-old grandson, to bake (from scratch), a devil's food birthday cake with chocolate buttercream frosting for a surprise party Saturday night. Paul has been baking with me since he was three years old. Over the years, our neighbor has been a taste-tester for Paul's baking delights, so she confidently placed her order, assured Paul could do the job. And he did!
Paul stayed overnight at my house on Friday night, so he could bake the cake that evening, then make the buttercream frosting and decorate the cake, Saturday morning. He wanted to add "Happy Birthday Jerry" on the cake, and a few designs, but neither Paul nor I had ever worked with frosting bags and piping tips. So we watched some YouTube videos and he practiced those techniques Friday night, too.
Saturday morning even before I got out of bed, I could hear the mixer whirling away in the kitchen. Paul was up early making chocolate buttercream frosting and practicing one more time, working with the frosting decorating bag. What an amazing boy! He delivered the cake on time (he did have Grandpa carry it over to the neighbors with him, he was afraid he might drop it), and from the email we got the next day from our neighbor, the cake was a "HUGE hit!" Jerry, the grown-up birthday boy, who's a chocoholic, wants to be on Paul's taste-testing list, too.
To see photos of the cake and the baker, go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/b-cake.html
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
* This month's Penguin Classics book is THERESE RAQUIN, by Emile Zola. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin tote bag, goto:
http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqT1AFEAEE9EEA&c=CLASSICS
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