THE ORANGE CAKE

It was just another day of play last week in her little kitchen. The orange cake was created from her vivid imagination. With the cake in the play oven, she decided to rest while waiting during the baking time. Surprised that sleep had overtaken her she awoke with a start and rushed to the baking center to check on the masterpiece. Alas! Dismayed, she trudged upstairs to tell Mama that there wasn't an orange cake in the oven. What had happened? When Gramma visited in Saskatchewan there had been an orange cake in her little oven. Oh, no! Now it was Gramma's fault. I listened as the sad tale was retold, and then I recalled the incident that had created the magical orange cake.
It was a chilly day last October, a good day to turn on the play oven and bake a pumpkin pie. As the imaginary pie was baking, Gramma distracted Miss A, and in those moments she slipped a real pumpkin  pie from the fridge into the play oven. What a magical moment when the oven was opened and the little girl stared in disbelief. It all ended with a delightful tea party which included the leftover Thanksgiving pie.

Now, back to the disheartened little girl who curled up in my lap, feeling very sad about the orange cake that wasn't. She tugged my heart strings and before long a plan was hatched. With her very own little apron in hand we walked across the street to Gramma's house to create the best ever orange cake. The sequence of photos tells the story.

Using an electric beater for the very first time.

After the cake was cool, the little girl poked holes into it ....

and filled the holes with orange jello ...

then she cut the orange cake very carefully...

served it ...

and did a taste test.

The proud little baker.