"Interesting....but stupid"----a character on the old show "Laugh In"

This castle cake I baked for Day-Hay's party a few years ago is .....interesting. It's not quite like the one in the "Betty Crocker Boys and Girls Cookbook." You could ski down the roof and the miniature marshmallows that sit up there needing orthodontia won't stop you. The doors look pretty in pink but what you can't see is that one door is sunken in and the other ended up with some frosting on top. But it's.....interesting.

All my artwork all of my life has been ....interesting. Other people have artwork that is exciting or creative or delightful. My youngest sister, the artist, has artwork that is amazing and original. I have a paper-mache duck-like thing that was supposed to be a frog and really looks like no known animal. I made it in college in a mandatory art class. It was....interesting....too.

Idea or concept, A. Execution, C. No wonder I got Bs in art during most of my school career. I had visions. I just couldn't live up to them. What I actually created too often looked like a picture after someone has played just a little too much with the special effects. "Dying the spaghetti on this food mosaic pink with food coloring, what an....interesting....idea!" said the teacher who was busy trying to avoid the question on everyone's mind, the one that goes, "But what IS it?"

When it comes to this castle cake, or my two previous attempts at a castle cake, this ....interesting version is the best. The first castle cake attempt, the one in my childhood, was far worse. Making it with my sister, the artist, didn't even save it, although her reaction was the inspiration for turning that paper-mache frog into a duck. She took one look at what we had created and dubbed it the ruins---and that was before we tasted it and discovered that she had mixed up teaspoons and tablespoons when she added the salt in the frosting. That cake wasn't even ....interesting. It was just a total ruin.

With a touch of the insanity that comes with being a brand-new mother, I attempted a castle cake again for Kat's first birthday. Obviously, a one year old was not going to care that she had a fancy cake so I must have been engaged in an early bout of competitive parenting. The cake was my one and only entry in the prove-how-good-a-parent-you-are-by-doing-something-cutesy-and-bizarre event in the Parenting Olympics. At least by the time of Day-Hay's castle cake, at her tenth birthday, the cake was an entry in a slightly (but only slightly) more worthwhile event in the Parenting Olympics: the prove-you-love-them-equally-by-repeating-your-mistakes-at-their-request event. But Kat's cake made no sense---and was only slightly less of a ruin than the first version. At least that cake tasted good (which explains why Kat crawled around snatching cake from other children during most of the party.)

But I think it's time to abandon my cake decorating career. This final attempt was .....interesting and in the world of my art, that's as good as it gets.

___

P.S. To Bev, Mary, Ben Ploney, and the other smart-alecks out there: no, this entry is not ....interesting. (I�m a Mom. I live to spoil all your fun.)

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