A Tale of Two Cakes

Yesterday was my fifteenth birthday. I woke up early, along with the rest of my family and opened my presents before going to cross country practice. (It is one of our traditions to start birthdays by opening presents.) It was raining a little bit, but that didn't matter. It was my birthday, after all! This year, I was lucky enough to have two cakes rather than one on the occasion of my birthday.

My first cake was heart-shaped and chocolate, with pink and white icing. Cassidy made it for me. At morning recess, after Japanese class, I returned to the 9th grade area to find the cake set out on a table. Next to it was Katherine and next to her was Cassidy, brandishing a rather large, sharp-looking knife. I protested, saying that we should save it for lunch but was overruled in a matter of seconds. How could I resist? Although we only had fifteen minutes, the three of us managed to make a sizable dent in the cake, with a bit of assistance. The remainder was strategically concealed under backpacks and sweaters to preserve the rest for lunch. At lunch, only about a quarter of the cake was left. We took turns cutting off slivers and eating them until the whole thing was gone. Unfortunately, Eve came down to where we were just a couple minutes after we had devoured the final pieces. Needless to say, all that was left were the crumbs and some little globs of icing.

My second cake was a yellow cake with rich chocolate icing. My family and I ate this cake after a delicious dinner at home. The recipe for this cake came from my mother's all time favorite dessert cookbook. I'm not usually one for cake, but whenever we make this one, I simply can't defy the instinct to wolf down a piece. The cake was rich, but not too much so. The icing was even richer. We of course had to eat it with vanilla ice cream. On top of the a thick layer of icing, the words Happy Birthday Abby were written. Above that, some little rainbow sprinkles were scattered. Around the edge were 16 candles. (Another of our birthday traditions is to add an extra candle for good luck.) I didn't quite manage to blow out all 16 in one breath, but there's always next year, when I can try one more time with one more candle.