I Hate Frosting.
Last edited Sat May 11, 2013, 04:13 PM - Edit history (1)
I hate frosting. Disgusting stuff. I won't eat it. I scrape it off everything.
My mom was that lady who baked a cake from scratch with swirls and drifts of beautiful icing for every occasion. Spice cakes had rich cream cheese icing that she'd whip and she'd whip until it was more like meringue than frosting . German Chocolate, my dad's favorite, was layered with thick chocolate butter cream icing and that candied pecan topping, all made from scratch. She'd stand in front of the stove for half an hour stirring that pecan stuff while it bubbled and popped. You couldn't stop stirring or it would burn. She'd trust me to stir it if she was working on something else but my dad wasn't allowed near it. My dad would be hopping around the kitchen, hoping my mom would look the other way, just so he could steal a hot mouthful out of the saucepan.
My mother took her baking very seriously. If you asked my family over for a picnic my mom showed up with a potato salad big enough for a football team, and a beautiful cake. Well, a MOSTLY beautiful cake. Because they were always square, and they always had one corner that was unfrosted. There it would be, a two or three layer sheet cake, looking like Julia Childs had just spent a day in the kitchen baking something fit for the King of France. Except for that one little unfinished corner that looked sort of like an abandoned lot.
Yes, my Sunset-Magazine Worshipping mother, who strove to make every holiday look like a clipping out of her favorite magazine, would leave one corner of her masterpieces unfrosted, unfinished, and undone. Just so her youngest son, who could be a little bit fussy, got to have a piece of cake just the way he liked it.
I saw the eyebrows raised when people looked at her cakes. I know they thought she might be a little bit nutty. The cakes did look weird. Sort of like a roof with one little patch that had no rooftiles, or a perfect lawn with a little square chunk of just good old dirt. But my mom didn't care. Her kids came first. Sunset Magazine be damned.
That's how much my mom loves me.
Happy Mother's Day Mom. I know I won't see you this year but I hope you liked the flowers.
Call your mama, if you can. If you can't, then send them some good energy and a couple of beautiful thoughts.
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I've got something in my eyes. 
A really lovely tribute to your mom. 
but I figured it out soon enough. Great tribute to your mom. Maybe you should send it to her? I will see my mom tomorrow, so I am very fortunate. I've been thinking of her a lot lately. She's barely twenty years older than me, so my memories of her from when I was little have been taking on a different tone lately. I'll think, "She was only twenty-five when she did that? Or she was still in her thirties then? Younger than I am now?" I hope to have a good visit with her tomorrow. Happy Mother's Day to your mom and all DU moms!!!
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We could definitely share a piece of cake that way. 
Your Mom sounds great. 
My mother is a hateful bigoted jerk who last time she spoke to me said she was happy my employer was going out of business (and I was losing my job) because now I'll understand why Obama is an awful president.
I wish my mother was like yours. She sounds awesome. Enjoy!
Happy mothers day Ma... 
You are "almost embarrassed". Nope, you are proud.
Hearts to you and the kid. Enjoy the day.
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Lost my mother 18 months ago and it's still pretty hard to process. I share your wishes.
Wishing you the same.
I became a good cook mostly because she was not! But she tried - though money was tight, my brother and I were always well-fed (in quantity, if not quality). My mom (who is 86 and now in assisted living) and dad (gone since 2007) loved to come visit and have me cook for them (even if they were deathly afraid of me putting garlic in things - they were fussy to the extreme).
My mom always let me lick the beaters. When she made chocolate pudding, I got to scrape out the pan (the best part!). She is not happy in Florida in the facility, but she is safe and well cared for, and my brother lives close by to her. (yes, she drives him crazy).
Tomorrow my two girls (girls - they are 32 and 28!) will come over to make dinner for my wife and I. Crab cakes with sugar snap peas and roasted potatoes (home made salsa and chips to start), with a vanilla bean chocolate layer cake for dessert topped with chocolate covered strawberries (they took after me - love to cook - not my wife, who does not, but is happy I do!). When we are all here, we will call my mom - my girls love their grandmother. My wife's mom is not doing well, and is in a hospice situation - we will call her as well.
Time flies. I miss my dad, and love my mom...even if she has become a (understandably) cranky person!
my Mom has been gone almost 20 years, but she did those same food things for me. And spread the butter evenly and all the way to the very edges of the bread.
lovely tribute, give her a copy 
You're both lucky.
Being someone who loves to mix up a masterpiece myself, I can appreciate what it took for her to leave that corner square unfrosted.
I really enjoyed your Mother's Day essay.
Cher
