THE CRUMBLING CAKE

Les made the best German Chocolate cake--EVER--for Gerald's birthday! I have been making German Chocolate cakes from scratch for Gerald's birthday since 1969 and they've always been good. Les has been making them the last several years and each time they've also been good. Les greased and floured the pans the same way as usual, but when he started to release the cakes from the pans all three layers were stuck to the pans. (We are blaming the use of "old" Crisco) He did everything he could think of to get the layers to release, but one layer was torn apart into three sections; the second layer had some some chunks remaining in the pan and the third layer had just one piece adhering to the pan. I said, "Make extra filling!" We pieced the first layer together and added the filling; we camouflaged the second layer with filling and on the top layer, we heaped on the filling!

Julia Child would have been proud of us!

That damned cake got rave reviews. We had six guests for dinner and each had a piece of cake and I sent pieces home with some people! Gerald asked, "Why were you sending my cake home with people?" I said, "Because it's so rich we can never eat it all and I'd have to throw some away." He asked, "What did Les do differently--the cake was better than usual?" I said, "We only make it once a year!"

Les finally told Gerald about the Crumbling Cake and our artwork.