It’s been a while since I peeked in the Smitten Kitchen and was immediately inspired to get cooking. Mostly because I’ve been following a new sort of diet (I know, I know, I still haven’t posted an update. Coming sometime in the future…I promise. There’s been a lot of work on the home front in the past couple months). But today, I was in just the right sort of mood to follow a whim and whip up a cake during my babe’s nap. And I did. I substituted palm sugar for the sugar and coconut milk for the milk and coconut for the almonds. And since this isn’t a food blog, I’ll stop there. I ended up with a lovely cake cooling in the pan. And a real sense of satisfaction paired with eager anticipation.

Thursdays are our TSH pick up day. And somehow with the nap time which keeps getting later and all the fun that my son has pulling all the jars to be returned out of the bag – while I’m putting them in the bag – and making sure that each milk jar has a lid and all sorts of other exercises in order, we are more often than not departing within a very short time of their closing.

Today, I thought that it would be best if before we left I also turned the cake out of the pan, that way it would be ready for the final slicing and pastry creaming steps upon our return. Since I didn’t really follow the recipe and my topping was much looser (still quite tasty) and buttery in a slippery sort of way. My flip quickly became a flop onto the counter. And the cake just sort of collapsed all over the place. Oh no! That is precisely what I said. Repeatedly. So many times, that my son joined in. So there we stood saying oh no over and over again while I got out a spatula and began scraping the cake off the many surfaces that the flop enveloped (sadly, our counters are rarely clear of stuff).

When the cake just sort of turns itself wrong-side out in front of you, there really is nothing better to do than to tuck in. And so we did. I got out the pastry crème filling and dropped a few dollops overtop the mess of cake that I’d scooped into a bowl and we got to eating. Logically. It was very tasty. My son repeatedly asked for more. I mostly gave him cake only (with not even a twinge of guilt since I used palm sugar – and hardly any for that matter). There was just a hint of sweetness in that warm moist cake, an afternoon delight. And quite a pleasant result for what had very recently been a big OH NO.

But. Remember that we had been heading out the door? There was still a sliver of a chance that we’d make it to TSH by closing. But then we landed in a sea of traffic. Unusual traffic. My son started saying oh no again. I had to laugh. Lucky for us the folks at TSH are easy going and so when we showed up at 4:10 they let us in and we got our big ol’ bag of food.

After our food pickup I’d been planning on visiting the Lawrence Hall of Science for a quick first time experience since they close at 5p. Foiled again. This time there was a demand for milk and a very strong desire to play in the car. After 20 minutes of car fun in the hot sun – which also included my mistakenly setting off the car alarm two times – we headed home.

And after all that it seemed to me that it was time for another serving of cake. My son agreed. Thanks as always for sharing Deb! From your picture perfect to our make do, it was a fun ride.