The Worst Cake Ever!!

Every Monday we try really hard to hold Family Home Evening.  Our church leaders have counseled us to hold it once a week, and we do our very best to teach the gospel in a family setting.  I love that time with my family.  Usually there is complaining, nagging, teasing, and it's not pretty sometimes, but for the most part our family is better because of the effort we put forth to to hold them on Monday nights.   Our kids are all different ages, and what used to work just doesn't cut it now.  Elder Bednar (one of our church leaders) spoke  about how we need to teach our children using the spirit and teach them what THEY need to know and not what the world wants us to know. Also, he warned us not to overuse lessons manuals and "cookie cutter" lessons.  Well, here is what Tom did on Monday:


He told everybody that he wanted to bake a cake with everyone's help. He had everyone's attention. He held up a cookbook and said, "This is pretty old-fashioned and nobody uses these recipes anymore, so we are going to make up our own recipe!"


With a bowl and wooden spoon in hand, we all added common ingredients you would find in a cake:  flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, milk, etc.  It looked like it might be edible.  Well, Tom exclaimed, "I heard that only the cool people are putting mustard in their cakes nowadays.  I think we need mustard in here".  Maggie heard this and started crying, which turned into wailing, which turned into screaming, "DON'T PUT MUSTARD IN THE CAKE!" Over and over until Tom caved.  He asked her if Ketchup would be OK and she wiped her tears and agreed with a smile.  So, Tom added a large amount of ketchup, mixed it all together, put it in a pan, and baked it for 20 or so minutes.  We were all grossed out.  Really grossed out.


As the cake was baking and adding strange smells to our kitchen, Tom gave a nice short lesson on the scriptures and how it is kind of a recipe book for us.  The end result is not a cake, but happiness.  The Lord wants us to be happy and return to him, and has given us a "map" so we can follow it on our own. The world seems to think that the scriptures are old-fashioned and unnecessary, and that we can add whatever "ingredients" we want to.  But, with some great input from the kids, we decided that sometimes it doesn't work out when we do things our own way.


We all tried the cake.  I don't think the ketchup was the worst part of it.  The 1/2 cup of baking soda that Parker insisted on adding was pretty yucky.  Luckily, I was in on the plan from the beginning, so I pulled out a banana cake I had baked earlier.  It was MUCH better.  I hope the kids remember this one.  By the way, we fed the cake to the chickens and they loved it!!