Flop Cake

Thinking back to a simpler time; to a moment in my history when life was well, more relaxed yet, it could have been a more complex time as well. At ten years old I had more responsiblilities and more to do than most adults today. It's odd that I never felt overwhelemed or like I couldn't handle it either! In those days we never questioned it, we couldn't we just did it! I knew how to diaper a baby while I was a mere baby myself, I learned how to cook at age five; my mother taught me out of shear self-preservation! I made the entire house smell like smoky sickening sweet ginger snaps. I wanted to make her and my siblings breakfast and decided to fry them on an iron skillet. Well, at the tender age of five, ginger snap cookies closely resembled pancakes without the hassle--I thought, anyway. My poor pregnant mother on the other hand...did not. So, she made a huge decision to teach her five year old how to cook. It did pay off in the end, and I have to say, my husband reaps the rewards today. Hehehehe. So, I just wanted to let any children out there who bakes or cooks to know, that even the slightest cooking disaster can be a memerable treat. My flop cake is still enjoyed today.


I was a mere gangly ten year old, and in charge of not only my nine siblings for the evening but my mother's gal friend's children as well when they went out. They were all recently divorcees and had left me in charge. It was the late 1960's and by then, I knew how to cook, clean, and bathe my siblings and yes, even maintain a home pretty darned well for a young girl.Well, the children had already had supper and had been promised a nice dessert of chocolate cake as long as they behaved themselves. In our day, desset was not an every day delight; it was given as a once in a while treat, so the anticipation was thick in the small livingroom filled with starving drooling faces. The odor of dutch chocolate permiated the entire house, it captivated those little faces and they were absolutly salivating in anticipation!I listened for the ding of my little timer, and quickly went to remove the huge cake from my O'Keefe and Merit Gas range, just as I was trying to gently take it out, my youngest brother darted by, as I pivited to manouver my way away from him the cake slid and it fell onto the table falling up-side-down crumbling all over the table top!Knowing that I was going to have fifteen very upset little ones I put my hands on my face and thought for a moment-- Soon, I went for a box of pudding, some milk, and the stove, I cooked the chocolate pudding and scooped the messy cake into bowls and dribbled pudding all over the cake. Then I took dream whip and spooned some on top of that! The children thought they had a wonderful new treat! I called it Flop Cake! I can not tell you how often they asked me to repeat this treasure never knowing it was just a mistake.