Pineapple upside down cake for my Mama's birthday.
This is two days late but as it is lent, she can't eat eggs on Friday and my medical care took up Saturday.
This cake feels like a tiny thing in terms of labour of love in comparison to everything she does for me.
This is my second time baking it, the first was her wedding anniversary and she was so excited about it then and just as excited now. She was like a little kid, rushing through her dinner because it was straight out of the oven and she wanted to have it. It makes me so happy to know that I can make something for her for a change, something she loves, not something she has because she's catering to everyone else's wants and needs and their preferences. We all love this cake, but in my mind, and my heart, this is my Mama's favourite cake. The first and only time she tasted this cake was when a friend of hers gave her some for her (friend's) birthday and she asked her to place an order with the same baker for either my sisters or my birthday and that baker never came through for whatever reason and my mom was so mad about it, but eventually forgot. Almost twenty something years later I offhandedly mentioned to my mom in the midst of my medical care routine that I was planning to make this cake for her anniversary and I've never seen her so damn excited about something. It was a lot of pressure, nailing something the first time I try it, especially since basic sponges are my kryptonite. I'm absolutely trash at them. I had no time to practice bake beforehand, and she invited guests and made a small lunch thing out of it so I was even more stressed. I researched, I altered a recipe I've never tried before in hopes of using foolproof methods to get the perfect sponge, I held my breath throughout the process. Assembled the tray, mixed the batter, poured, evened it out and baked it.
Took it out, clean knife, fifteen agonising later I flipped it, terrified. Beautiful, stunning. She cut it.
She served it to her guests, everyone loved it, she was ecstatic. So ecstatic she made me bake it two more times that day, one batch ended up being six tiny cakes that she then handed out to her friends at work.
Masterpiece . I felt so good. Her smile was so beautiful.
I made two batches this time, one whole cake for us, and six tiny cakes again to give away.
Her smile makes it worth everything.
I can't do great things for my mom to make her proud, but I can do many little things, and maybe, maybe they'll add up into a perfect little collage of memories to cherish.
My collage of love, an ode to my mom.
Love you to the ends of the Earth and beyond, my sweet Huffy🐥
