My son (14) has a grade 9 Geography project due today. The kids were give pretty much free reign on what kind of project they wanted to do, and my boy decided to bake a cake in the shape of Canada. Because, well... cake is awesome. Who doesn't love cake? I'm pretty sure his vision involved something like you'd see on "The Cake Boss". Unfortunately, he'd never baked before (and neither have I). And really unfortunately, yesterday was "Family Day" and every grocery store in walking distance was closed, and we didn't have any food colouring or icing. The only place open is the health food store. No problem, the boy decides he'll just use icing sugar (purchased in bulk from the health food store - it's organic!) and "natural" food colouring - meaning the frozen berries in my freezer. The initial baking actually goes pretty well. Two sheet cakes later, and he's ready to cut "Canada" out of the top part and start building... in my roasting pan. (Don't ask me why he decided to use that!) First problem - "Canada" doesn't hold together so well. It looks like a vaguely Canada-shaped pile of rubble sitting on a sheet cake. He tries patting it into place. Then he decides it's okay - icing hides a multitude of sins. Second problem - the first batch he mixes up is not icing, it's a watery glaze. Still, it IS pale blue/gray, thanks to the blueberries. My son pours it on the cake anyway. He's sure it'll look better once he's applied thick white icing to "Canada"! Third problem - he forgot to clean the bowl before mixing the "snow". It's not white, it's gray. In other words, spring in Canada. My son's optimism is starting to waver. Fourth problem - the icing is thicker, but still not thick enough. Hudson's Bay fills up and gray "snow" bleeds all over the blue/gray "ocean". The prairies still look like rubble. At this point the boy can't cope any more and heads downstairs to play guitar and sulk. Comments from family members along the lines of "Well, it's recognizably Canada!" aren't helping. "I'll just do something else," he says. "I've got all afternoon - I can make a board game." (With what materials, I wonder?) I tell him he's spent too much time on this project to quit now. "You can't just give up because you're frustrated," I say. "I'M NOT FRUSTRATED!" To prove he's not frustrated, he decides to head back out to the health food store for more organic powdered sugar. He mixes up a huge bowl of the stuff and adds pureed frozen cranberries, in the hope it will turn red so he can pipe it from a sandwich bag to outline the country and provinces. It turns pink. And incredibly liquid. Icing runs out of the sandwich bag and starts spreading everywhere, instead of piping out in a line. My not-frustrated son decides to dump the entire bowl over Canada. It covers the cake and fills up the roasting pan. And oh my gosh, is it pink! Pepto-Bismol pink! "Are you celebrating the fact that we were the first country in North America to legalize gay marriage?" I ask. He's not impressed, and declines to answer. In fact, he's pretty much stopped talking to me altogether. Icing having failed him, my son uses carrots and celery to outline the provinces. At this point, his dad and I have pity on him and drive out to the 24 hr drug store to pick up some licorice strings instead. Definitely looks better than carrots. That evening was spent making little flags for each of the provinces. And it was a very, very sulky young man who went off to school this morning with an enormously pink (and sticky) Canada cake in a roasting pan. So, please, wish him luck! I'm sure he'll have a lot of explaining to do in class today.
O.M.Goodness......BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! :lol: That poor kid! I don't know the grading scale in Canada, but I sure hope they give "E" for effort.
Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!! I have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. Oh Lord, I pray he gets a fantastic grade.
Oh my gosh that is so funny!!! I hope you got a picture! Actually, they way you described it I could pretty much visualize it lol!
Yes! I keep checking back in case I see the little attachment paper clip icon on your thread. Picture!!!! :lol:
I'm sooooooooooo ROFL at this! Sounds like the Egypt cake I made with ds6 last year... except we labeled the regions with sprinkles, too.
Sorry guys - no pictures! I meant to take one secretly last night, but I forgot. And that's probably for the best. Apparently things didn't go so well today. He's been holed up in his bedroom all afternoon, avoiding everyone. I'm sure he feels like it's the end of the world. I actually ended up e-mailing a note to his teacher, explaining the story behind the cake, and adding: "He also made little flags to mark each province, with the provincial stats and a fun factoid about each province on the back. He did a pretty good job on those, especially considering his handwriting challenges. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, he did not stick his flags in the cake when he presented it. Probably because he was too embarrassed by that point, and just want to fling the cake at everyone. I've instructed him to give them to you tomorrow, and I hope he will. He came home in a fine temper this evening, but I will say... he's not likely to ever forget the location of each of the provinces, considering how many times he tried to mark them in icing on that cake before finally giving up and pouring pink cranberry icing over everything. Hoping it went better than he currently thinks!" Poor kid! And I'm a very bad mother, because as sorry as I feel for him right now, it still makes me giggle.
Not a bad mother at all, just one who can see far into the future and appreciate the humor in a hugely disappointing (for him) situation! Far. Far. into. the future.
I'm with Brooke... that is so funny and cute... he should get an E for effort.. he worked so hard on it! I hope the teacher understands.
I've got my fingers crossed things go better today! His teacher was very understanding last night, commenting that she was impressed by his perseverance in the face of many obstacles. She's giving him a few more days to pull together the information part of his presentation and she'll be marking him on that, instead of on the cake itself. I do miss homeschooling him, and I miss being able to make everything in his world right again, but I have to say... this is probably quite character-building!
That is funny. I am late to reply. I know it is hard for kids when we laugh at things that they don't find funny. I can remember one time my son walked right into a window (he was about 13-14) and it made me laugh. On the way home, I would just start laughing randomly and I would say, "I'm sorry, but it was funny." Thankfully he didn't mind.
