I Usually Help Her But on That Day, She Helped Me

I need to brag today, and I hope you don’t mind. I just love the way my daughter’s mind works.  She is so aware of the world around her, and her attention to detail is amazing.

A while ago, we decided to make a chocolate Bundt cake. Amelia donned her “cooking apron,” as she calls it, and pulled out her very own set of measuring cups and spoons.

I wanted to try to make the cake less fattening, so we substituted plain, unsweetened applesauce for the oil. I’ve never done that before, so I think that mere deviation from the standard cake mix recipe was enough to distract me. That's not hard to do, and it will prove to be quite problematic as I continue with my story.

We emptied the cake mix bag into the mixing bowl, measured the applesauce and carefully cracked two eggs, checking for shells. Amelia painstakingly stirred the batter with her “spoonula,” barely spilling anything. I even gave Amelia a brief pre-emptive lecture about not getting her little fingers anywhere near the hand mixer as I finishing the mixing phase.

We scraped every last bit out of the mixing bowl and into the Bundt pan. I was looking at the cake mix in the pan, wondering why it seemed so thick, assuming it was because I used applesauce and not oil, when I heard my daughter’s sweet little voice.

“Mommy! Mommy! We forgot the water!”

Sure enough, we did. Or, more specifically, I did. But before I could say anything, my daughter said, “Look here, Mommy, on the box: two cups of water.” As she informed me of my mishap, she pointed specifically to two blue-colored measuring cups on the back of the cake mix box.

So, needless to say, my child saved the day. Or, at least the cake. We took two steps back before our one step forward and all was well. And, in case you were wondering, Amelia’s cake was delicious.