BerthaBlog

Today is the Director’s birthday. He’s fourteen.

Just as the Artist finally reaches the end of teenhood, the Director gets his into full swing.

Please pass the alcohol.

The Director had decided he wanted to make a chocolate chip cookie cake for his birthday. He’s enjoyed cooking ever since I got him to help me make cookies. After that first time he kicked me out of the kitchen and did it all himself. He’s experimented with chocolate chip cookies; last month he made a full-sheet cookie for his class.

So when he announced he wanted to make a chocolate chip cookie cake for his birthday, I thought he meant he wanted a big sheet cookie that could be decorated like a cake.

Yesterday when we were picking up the ingredients, I learned that he actually meant a cake. He planned to use the same recipe he had for cookies, only twice as much, and bake it in a cake pan.

“Um… I don’t think that will work, sweetie.”

“Why not?”

“Well, cookie dough is a lot denser than cake dough. That’s why cookies are made small and flat. If you make it in a cake pan it won’t cook all the way through.”

“Maybe.”

Of course, he’s right to be skeptical of any cooking information he gets from me, as I have always hated cooking. So I let him go ahead with his plan, because kids have to experiment and learn things for themselves.

The cookie-cake didn’t work.

He was upset, but he bounced back. Today I made him a regular chocolate cake from an old family recipe. We’ll go to his favorite restaurant for dinner, he’ll have pizza and cake and lots of presents, his cousins are all in town so he’ll have kids to play with, and I think generally he’ll have a ball.

And this summer the Artist will turn eighteen.

Stop laughing, God.