But Where Is My Cake? Life Is Full Of Surprises

A week after the Christmas holiday, we were visiting my parents (Matthew’s grandparents). During the week before the visit, we picked up one of those packaged Christmas cakes on sale and brought it with us. Matthew made a mental note.

My mom asked if we could save it for next week, as she had already bought some sweets for us to enjoy after lunch. That was fine with us.

So, we had cookies and tea, and Matthew had cookies with some drink.

When we finished, I told Matthew it was time to get ready to head home. Matthew looked at me, surprised, and turned to look at Baba (that’s what he calls his grandmother).

"Baba, but we didn’t eat the cake. Where’s the cake, Baba? Baba, I brought you a cake?" Matthew kept asking.

I thought he’d never stop talking about the cake. He really wanted to eat it. We spent about five minutes explaining to him why we weren’t eating it today. It was because next week, his cousins were coming, and they wanted to have the cake too. That settled it.

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Last week, we were visiting my parents again, and for lunch, Matthew was enjoying his chicken soup. When he finished his soup and the second dish, he brought his plate back to the kitchen and then returned to the table. He lifted the placemat, looked surprised, and asked, "But where’s my surprise?"

It happened once on Christmas Eve—Baba placed $20 under each grandchild’s placemat as a surprise (way too much in my opinion, but I couldn’t argue). So, Matthew remembered and asked again. I couldn’t believe my mother went and found another $20 just because he asked!

He knows better than to say, "Baba, this is too much," but instead, he said he was going to the toy store to buy more toys. Yes, like he really needs more toys.

I think instead of having a serious talk with Matthew, I’ll have to have a serious talk with my mom.

Someone Little Enjoys His Food

My Matthew who sometimes looks like a little man in the baby clothes is definitely growing. Not just physically but mentally too. His little brain is processing everything he sees, and everything he sees he wants to do - one of them - eat like we eat.

You Are Getting Your Own Dinner Plate. It was time to give Matthew big dinner plate, and let me tell you why. Every breakfast, lunch or dinner Matthew would reach out for our fork or spoon, and dish full of food. He wanted to eat what we eat. It was fun for while, but us eating spaghetti with the spoon did it. 'Matthew you are getting your own plate' - we said. He absolutely loves it now as he can choose from three different foods I put on his dish. To our surprise Matthew started to pick his own food with his fork right into his mouth. The nice thing is that he knows when he does something new, and he is so proud of himself - the big smile on his face tells it all.

Spaghetti Time. Matthew is now almost 15 months, and he got total of four teeth - two on the bottom and two on the top. We thought that eating spaghetti would be tough, but we were wrong. Matthew would grab this long pasta and grind into pieces with his four teeth, and then with more shredding on the back and then its all gone. The best of all is to watch him how sometimes he would try to put long pasta onto the fork and then into his mouth. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work, and this is when his face looks like tomato smugged in the ground beef.

Let Me Clean Your Face. No not Matthew's face. In fact my face needed to be clean one day. With few sneezes around food, and with Matthew sometimes eating from my dish and then grabbing my face for a small hug and kiss, it is hard for me to keep my face clean. In addition, Matthew likes to pick small crumbs around him with his little fingers and eat them. So one day Matthew finds a small bread crumb attached to my face, picks it and eats it. This time I laughed.

Chocolate. Did I mention the chocolate yet?... Yes Matthew loves apple cinnamon chocolate loaf !!!

As life goes on, we continue our messy breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners. One day when I am old and washing my floor around the table, the greasy stains will remind me how wonderful and precious eating times we had together.

Apple Cinnamon Chocolate Loaf from Heaven

'Okay, are you ready for my baking again?' - I asked.

'Looked at me, do I look like I need another cake?' - he said.

'Yes you do look like you need another cake to eat, and I need one too.' - I said.

'Then lets bake it.' - he said.

With touch of love and good ingredients I finally I got a recipe for a chocolate cake that all three of us like. It goes like that.

Take one stick of the unsalted butter - yes unsalted because love is not salty. Or is? Okay sometimes we get angry on each other, but hey its better to release that pressure than store it. So take that one stick of unsalted butter, that is 175 grams of butter fat and mix until fluffy with 2/3 of a cup of golden cane sugar. Yes this sounds very prestige, but by all means you can use granulated white sugar too. Better not discriminate against sugars - sweet stuff is needed. So by the time I finish this paragraph, the butter and sugar mixture should be fluffy by now. And if not just get closer to the oven - the heat does wonders, but do and do not melt the mixture.

Two ingredients down. Now let the woman get the apple. Yes we need apple. Ironic that apple in the bible was a bate. But love can conquer everything, so apple will not stand in our way. Peel one large size apple, dice it into 1 cm cubes and coat with cinnamon. Let it wait its turn.

Now visit your pantry and find that aging flour like I do. God only knows how old my flour is. Okay not only God, but me too. This time do not take my advice, just get some fresh whole wheat flour, or if you live in Canada, Robinhood got special nutri blend flour of white flour and bran. You will need 1 and 3/4 cup of this fine powder. Yes, Robinhood, but bet he doesn't have the 2 tea spoons of the baking powder. Use any brand, and just mix it with the flour.

Now, we need hen. No not for the cake, but for the eggs. Ask hen for four eggs, and if not available, just go to the store and get some. Once cracked, beat them lightly. And remember to take out that white disgusting amoeba floating stuff around. I don't know what is going on with those eggs but they have more of that stuff in them lately. Next thing we will be able to hatch those eggs. But don't take my word for it - think the fertilization process is necessary for the chic to be produced.

And now the best part, 1 and 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

The rest is easy, throw beaten eggs into the sugar butter mixture. Mix it. Throw flour and baking powder mixture. Mix it. Throw cinnamon coated apple cubes, Mix it. And lastly dump the chocolate, and mix that baby.

Take a loaf pan, coat with butter, and put strip of parchment paper on the bottom. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan, and bake this loaf of love for 1 hour at 325 F.

Three days later.

'Should I make another loaf?' - I asked.

'Looked at me, do I look like I need another cake?' - he said.

'No you do not need another cake honey.' - I said.

'But make sure you take a note of this recipe, okay?' - he said.

'Yes I will write it down.' - I said.

A day later....

'Not to the whole world, ouch.' - he said.

'Honey we need to share.' - I said.