Every once in a great while, I find myself compelled to do
something nice. Maybe it's helping the
proverbial old lady cross the street.
Perhaps it's rearranging the carts in the cart corral at the grocery
store to make life easier for the poor cart guy. Or maybe, just maybe, it's abstaining from
poking fun at Canada. Oh who am I
kidding? I can't make fun of
Canada. It's a glorious place full of
hockey, maple syrup, and the word "eh". They even brought us Bill Shatner!
Back to basics, today marked Bethany's first annual
twenty-ninth birthday and like any good husband, I found myself thinking about
how to mark the occasion this morning.
Normally, the answer would be to go out on a nice little date but that
wasn't going to be possible for two reasons.
Number one being #BecauseBaby and number two being that Bethany would be
working late this evening. So some
contemplation, I decided that making Bethany a cake would be a great way to
show my affection and make her feel special.
The question was what kind though. Given that this was my first ever experience
making a cake, you'd think I'd go simple.
Nope, I decided to go all out and try an ice cream cake. Once I located the perfect ice cream cake
recipe on Google, Ellie and I headed to the grocery store to get the necessary
ingredients. One box of Chocolate Fudge
cake mix, a cube of Chocolate Chip ice cream, and a cube of vanilla ice cream
later, Ellie and I loaded up in the car and headed home.
Thus began the great cake making experiment of 2017. Into the mixing bowl went the cake mix,
water, and oil. Next on the list,
eggs. I open the refrigerator and reach
my hand out to grab the egg carton only to grab thin air. There were no eggs! With no other alternative, I load Ellie back
into her car seat and head back to the grocery store for a carton of eggs. The unfortunate part of having to go back to
the grocery store so soon is that everyone remembers you, especially when
flanked by a cute baby. The old guy arranging
carts, grouchy Janice scanning my items, and Stevo the overly excited bag
boy. All would remember us and want the
story of why we had returned so soon.
Not a story that you want to retell over and over again.
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| Coincidentally, the same face Ellie made when I shoved her back in her car seat... |
Ellie and I would then return home and continue on in the
process. Shortly thereafter, we would be
joined by my friend, Austin, to hang out and assist in our madness. Once the cake mix had baked and cooled, then
things got interesting. I had to remove
the cardboard box from my ice cream not that it was a big issue. The bigger challenge was in slicing the cube
of ice cream in half using a piece of dental floss per the instructions. It's more difficult than it sounds. For one thing, there's no way to hold onto
ice cream using your hands without leaving your fingerprints behind.
After several failed attempts, I finally had Austin hold the
ice cream block in place using a pair of spatulas while I gently eased my floss
into the ice cream. I assumed the floss
would cut like butter but it was not to be.
Finally after trying the floss and the sharpest knife in our kitchen, I
chose to embrace my inner Jackie Chan and use my mad karate chopping skills to
split the block in half (Don't worry, my hands were clean). Finally, I achieved success and placed my two
blocks side-by-side on top of the cake and put it in the freezer to harden. After I used a spatula to spread the ice
cream strategically to fill in my hand prints, that is.
 |
| Nice form on that karate chop Jesse. |
After the ice cream
spent several hours hardening, the next step was easy. Mixing the vanilla ice cream with a hand
mixer until smooth and painting it on the cake.
Once that step was completed, my task was done. Bethany had one tasty cake awaiting her in
the freezer. That being said, it was not
a pretty sight. Good thing I'm not
trying to make a living decorating cakes.
We'd go hungry here in the Holt household! #DaddyWrite
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| Gordon Ramsey would not be happy! |
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