Twinkle: Cakeblocked, Again!

Remember last Thanksgiving? Mr. Twinkle's uncle was sick and everybody came over for our little private Thanksgiving dinner on Friday, and I was stressed out about it being too fancy and over-the-top? And then it worked out OK?

Well, apparently the whole thing meant a lot to Mr. Twinkle's aunt (the one whose husband later died), because she's said a lot of nice things about it, and she asked me to bring the cake I made then to her Thanksgiving lunch this year: the Chocolate Gingerbread Toffee Cake from Southern Living. Baking this behemoth is no small feat, but all the effort is worth it. It is the most over-the-top cake I have ever made.

So it meant a lot to me that she remembered the cake and asked me to bring it (she's an old-school Southern lady from Philadelphia, Mississippi--the kind of woman who appreciates a labor-intensive cake from Southern Living, and so different from the rest of this family). So today I got all the ingredients and I was gearing up to spend the eve of Thanksgiving (and my birthday) baking this SOB.

She called today, explaining that Fun Sink is actually bringing the desserts. Fun Sink has made a lemon cake (which she makes for everything) and has procured a store-bought apple pie, which she plans to cover with caramel icing, Homemade Pie Kitchen-style. What Thanksgiving really needs now is a green bean casserole, so that's my new assignment. It's typical of Fun Sink to try to steal my cake thunder. What is this woman's deal with baking? I don't want this to be a competition, but she always makes it one. Why can't we both bring cakes?

So I'm thinking I should just bring the cake anyway, and we'll see who gravitates to ordinary lemon cake or store-bought faux Dutch apple pie, and who chooses the cake that was worthy of the cover of Southern Living's Christmas edition last year. Of course I'll bring the green bean casserole, too.

You know, this sort of thing always comes back to bite me. I'll stay up until 2 a.m. making ginger whipped cream, and no one will touch my cake because everyone loves Fun Sink's damn lemon cake. And yet I continue to try; I can't stop myself. One day I will prevail; one day Fun Sink will go down.

And, in that charitable and generous spirit, I bid you all a Happy Thanksgiving.