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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1992754-Grandmas-Treasured-Recipies
by River
Rated: E · Other · Comedy · #1992754
This is the story I accidentally sent to the Recycle Bin and purged
Week Six
Writing Prompt 2
Word Count  774

Grandma’s Treasured Recipes
The cake sat majestically on a pedestal cake platter. It was four layers high with lemon filling between each layer. The top of the cake was spread with a creamy topping and piled high with fresh berries dusted with icing sugar.

It was the first thing we saw when we entered the kitchen. Nicole, Betsy, Andréa and I had been friends since grade school.  We still lived in the same small town.  As a matter of fact, we all lived in the same neighbourhood. We were the kind of friends that always come in the back door. The kitchen was filled with the aroma of coffee brewing and freshly baked cake when we arrived.

Nicole looked reverently at the cake. “Oh my God,” she said, “It looks so good!” She loved all manner of goodies: cookies, pies, brownies.  This cake made her eyes sparkle. “I can’t wait to try it.” she sighed happily. 

We got together every Wednesday night for “Coffee and Calories” This week our get-together was at Betsy’s house.  We all headed to our favorite spots at the table. We liked to begin the evening catching up and discussing what was going on in our lives and in the neighbourhood.

Betsy poured coffee and brought dessert plates to the table with a generous piece of cake on each plate. She liked traditional desserts and had her grandmother’s old cookbook with the recipes written out in longhand.  The only problem was she often replaced an ingredient or two with something else she had on hand.

I took a forkful of cake and slid it into my mouth prepared for the smooth refreshing taste of lemon.  I immediately clutched at my jaw which had gone into a painful cramp.

I looked across the table at Nicole, her nose was wrinkled up and her lips were pursed.  She looked at Betsy wide-eyed and gasped, “Water, please, I need water.”

“My God, Betsy, what did you do to this cake?” asked Andréa after she tasted a small piece.

“What do you mean?” Betsy answered as she put the glass of water in Nicole’s shaking hands.  ‘It was one of Grandma’s tried and true recipes.”

“I think something went wrong somewhere,” Andréa said with a grimace. “Did you leave something out?”

“Well, after I got the cakes baked and cooled and the layers sliced in two I realized I was missing the lemon pudding for the filling.  There was no time to run to the store so I improvised a little. I decided to make Lemon Snow for the filling.”

Andréa groaned.

“Anyway,” Betsy went on, “I didn’t have a lemon so I used one of those plastic ones.”

“That juice is concentrated, Betsy, I hope you didn’t use the full amount,” Andréa sighed.

“I added the two tablespoons of cornstarch and stirred and stirred, but it didn’t seem to be thickening up so I added two more.”  Betsy explained.

I massaged my jaw smiling to myself as Andréa continued to extract more of the recipe from a red-faced Betsy.

Nicole seemed to have recovered and was sipping her coffee. I noticed she had pushed her dessert plate a little further away from her.  Every now and then she would look at the plate and shudder.

“Your Grandma would turn in her grave if she could see what you are doing to her recipes.”  Andréa stated, shaking her head. “And what exactly is that creamy stuff under the berries.”

“Oh, that,” Betsy mumbled, “It was supposed to be cream cheese whipped up with condensed milk.”

“Let me guess,” said Nicole, “you didn’t have any.”

“So, what did you use instead?” Nicole asked.

Betsy answered in a low voice, “Plain yogurt.”

She picked up her fork and stabbed a piece of the cake.  Her face contorted in horror. “I don’t understand,” she said, “Grandma’s never tasted like this.”

We all looked over at the offending cake and suddenly began to giggle helplessly.

“The look on your face was priceless, Nicole.” I said. “Your eyes were as big as saucers, your nose all wrinkled up and your mouth turned down at both corners.  I didn’t know a human face could do that.” I said between hiccoughs.

“Well, I never would have taken such a huge bite if I had known it was so sour.  I have never tasted anything quite like it!  It looked so good...”

Andréa smiled and said, “I don’t know Betsy, I don’t think you should enter that cake
in the fair this fall.”

Betsy headed toward the fridge.  “Luckily, I have cheesecake and an extra bowl of strawberries.” she said with a grin.


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