This Christmas made it official. Randy
and I are now adults. Not because we have two kids; since we spend
as much time playing with their toys as they do, I think we actually
lose adulthood points there.
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| Here, kids, make your own! |
No, we're adults because our respective
parents have cut us off from the traditional Christmas treats. In
our bag of Christmas cookies from my mom was a scroll declaring “The
Christmas Cookie Fairy is retiring,” and coldly informing us we'd
have to make the cookies ourselves if we wanted them. I have to
check with my lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that's illegal.
 |
| The first step is always wine. |
Since we had been abandoned and left
out in the cold to fend for our own holiday treats, there was only
one thing to do. We called Randy's brother over (remember kids,
always use the buddy system!) to try and muddle through the best we
could.
 |
| Wait, we need WHAT? |
Being adults, we started
by having a glass of wine. Box wine, because while we might be
adults, we're all still broke. Feeling properly mature, we lined up
the ingredients, including cake mix, pudding, and a million and
twelve poppy seeds, only to discover that we were short one. Cream
Sherry. What? Do adults really keep that kind of thing on hand?
What's it good for? I am positive that I have never once thought,
“What I need right now is a nice glass of sherry!”
None of us wanted to leave to go get
sherry – not that it would have taken long, as the liquor store is
only half a mile away. As we stood there, all staring at each other
desperately trying to figure out how to con one of the others into
taking the trip, I remembered: we did
have some sherry on hand. It was leftover from the Drunken
Pears we made as Christmas gifts. It was exactly the right amount
for two batches of poppy seed cake, too.
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| Yes, I was really happy about my poppy seeds! |
Come to think of it, that's probably
why adults have things like sherry around – they needed some as
part of a recipe once and it lasts forever because no-one actually
drinks it. While ours didn't last forever (not even for a month),
it was because we made things like Drunken Pears that used quite a
bit at once. We went through a large bottle and I couldn't come
close to telling you what sherry tastes like.
Once we finally had all the ingredients
lined up, we braced ourselves for the intricacies of the recipe...only
to find there are none. The recipe is pretty simple – mix all
ingredients together, pour in a pan and bake. We had a slight hiccup
when we realized we didn't have a bundt pan (must be one of those
adult things). For some reason, we also decided we couldn't use the
loaf pans I have plenty of. |
| I have no idea why we did this, either |
The problem was quickly rectified,
however, when we found some mini bundt pans – I have no idea why I
own them, other than they are silicon and I went through a phase of
“Ooooh! Neat silicon baking things!” – and a football cake
pan my friend gave me for my birthday.
The change in baking pans made it a bit
odd to figure out the timing, but we figured with another glass or
two of wine, we'd get through just fine. Luckily, this cake freezes
well, because we made two batches and ended up with a boatload of it.
We also have enough poppy seeds to make us mildly concerned about a
raid from the feds.
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| It took a bit longer to bake, but it was fun to slice into! |
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| These are a great individual size to freeze. |
RECIPE:
1 package Duncan Hines Yellow Cake mix
1 package french vanilla instant
pudding
2 oz. Poppy seeds
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
½ c vegetable oil
½ cup cream sherry
*Pre-heat oven to 350
*Grease and flour pans
*Combine all ingredients and beat on
medium for 2 ½ minutes
*Bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick
comes out clean
Makes:
1 bundt cake
OR
2 loaf pans
2 loaf pans
OR
3 small foil loaf pans
3 small foil loaf pans
OR
6-8 mini bundt cakes
6-8 mini bundt cakes
