I had a knee replacement before Christmas. It went like this: I ditched my last craft show for Elf Sylvia to finish and I took off to a trail running race Jody was in at Deception Pass, WA. I love doing support at races, plus we got to go away in the Guppy. Two days later I had my knee done. Fun right up to the finish line..
It was well planned because basically I was ready to sit on the couch for a while. Now that I am nearly three weeks post op, I am walking small distances, doing my physio and using the ice machine a lot. Excited to get back in the pool next week. I am on my way to the surgeon as I write.
OK, the real reason to write is because I want to tell you a story about a cake. Jody’s cake. Here is my true story.
It was Dec 14th and we were heading to the states for his race. We were meeting our friend Kath, whose birthday it was, and she also was racing. Jody made the cake the night before he left and thought he would ice it in the morning before he jumped on the ferry to come collect me in Vancouver. That night there was a big storm and he woke up to no power. That meant he needed to move to plan B for the icing. Jody packed up the Guppy (our campervan) and he headed for the Langdale ferry terminal. Parked at the ferry he was thinking about how to whip the cream and then he realized there was probably power somewhere along the side of the terminal where, in the summer, there are little craft stalls. He took the beaters, bowl, the whipping cream and found an outlet. While he was getting the job done his hairdresser Lucy walked by and looked over at what he was doing. Jody thought nothing of it, if you live on the coast you kind of need to make the Langdale terminal work for you.
With the cream whipped, he drove the Guppy onto the ferry and then took his block of chocolate and a plastic bowl upstairs to the snack bar where there is a microwave. There was a line up behind him and when he explained to the family that it might take a while because he had to heat the chocolate on pulse, they seemed fine. He said the kids even seemed interested in what he was doing. I need to point out here that Jody does not like drawing attention to himself, however, in his mind, what he was doing was completely acceptable.
Back in the Guppy, he cut the cake into layers and slathered on the chocolatey whipped cream icing. The windows along the side of the Guppy are huge so he said people walking by could see clearly what was happening in there. The cake completed, he put it in the mini fridge on a plate that fit in snuggly so that he could lock the door. At my sister’s, he brought some of the extra icing and cake inside so that I could construct a mini cake for them. Ten minutes later we were on the road to the border.
At the first round about we heard a snap and a crash. I looked back to see that the fridge door had popped open and that the cake was all over the floor. Keep in mind this was a four storey cake with smooth whipped cream icing in between each layer. That whipped cream was not sticky like normal icing. It was more like an ice rink after the Zamboni had done its job. If there is one thing that really gets on Jody’s nerves is when people don’t finish the job properly, don’t tie the knot exactly right, don’t close the roof box on the car. Well, not locking the fridge door was all on him and that was hard.
I jumped over my seat into the back and began scooping up the cake as best I could, but after the first scoop I could not touch anything as there was whipped cream all over my hands and up my wrists. I grabbed a dry face cloth and wiped off what I could, then reassembled the cake to by best ability as Jody sat in the drivers seat with his head hung low. It was a very rough way to start out the trip, especially since he went out of his way to make a great cake for Kath. We got the cake back into the fridge and wedged cans around the plate so that it would not move. Jody locked the fridge door and as we drove off I noted that dirt off our floor would likely look a lot like the melted chocolate in the whipped cream, so we would probably be OK.
The dinner that night went well. We did the smart thing and opened up a bottle of Prosecco before eating the cake so that people could feel a little fuzzy before they got to the dirt in the icing. Probably the funniest part was Jody telling Kath and her boyfriend in a really matter of fact manner about the construction of the cake. It wasn’t funny to Jody at all, he just needed to make a cake under somewhat restricted circumstances. This is the kind of guy he is. He could be standing at the end of a race in a frog onsie and not think it was funny. Just in the onsie to stay warm, no big deal. Anyhow, Jody raced well and for those of you who care about distances and results, here they are: 25km and 267 runners, finished in 2hr 33mins, 21st overall, 3rd in his age group.
And here is Kath with her cake.
