I'm a sweet girl. I'm kind, thrifty, courteous, and all those virtues in the Girl Scout handbook. If I had any faults it would be that besides being sweet, I love sweets.

I've never met a brownie, pie, or cookie that I didn't like which is why my talking scale would say to me, "Please, just one person at a time!" (That was right before I took out the batteries and tossed it in the trash.)

As much as I love baked anything, you could be hurt if you stood between me and a piece of cake! Marie Antoinette would have been sainted if she had told me to "shut up and have a piece of cake!".

We didn't have cake very often when I was growing up. Cake stood for special celebration...Birthdays, Christmas, Holidays or special occasions. I had to share my birthday cake with my baby sister who has a birthday 5 days before me. As you might have guessed there wasn't much cake left to even blow out the candles. I have noticed that if I'm mad, frustrated or stressed I bake. Yes, Sarah Lee and Little Debbie are personal friends of mine. (How did you know?)

One vivid memory I have of cake was in Sunday School when I was about 12. The teacher asked for volunteers to help and of the course the boys were way too cool to volunteer. So she gave each girl a piece of cardboard with various items printed on them. Mine said, "Entertainment". She had us stand up front with our signs and asked us if any of us knew what a budget was? She explained that what we were holding were items that our parents typically had to spend their money on every month. Then to our great delight she pulled a 2 layer cake out of the box and started dividing the cake into percentages we had assigned the various categories. Of course Housing, and Food got the biggest pieces. I remember her asking me how much of the budget should be spent on Entertainment.....of course I said "All of it!". After laughing and telling me that many people do spend almost their entire budget on entertainment she gave me a small piece (about 10 percent). By then the boys were demanding to participate so she handed out a few more parts of the budget. Finally all the cake was gone but there was one more cardboard sign left. It said, "God". The boy who had that card looked very forlorn when the teacher handed him the empty plate with just a few crumbs left.

It left a lasting impression on me that we give God the crumbs....not the first piece or even the best piece but the leftover crumbs.

Do you have a favorite food? Why is it so special to you?

Labels: birthday cake, Monday memories