Humility, thine name is white cake (a.k.a the birthday roundup)

From the balcony of Allie.....

First, Chris's birthday.  I decided to make his cake because Chinese cake delivers big time on presentation and less than minimally on taste.  So I was off to the task of making a white cake with coconut frosting.  The first recipe I found was this elaborate recipe involving separating eggs and boiling water.  I have been feeling pretty good about my culinary capabilities lately so I wasn't expecting it to be too difficult.  I mean I can read a recipe right?!  So after 2 trips to 2 different grocery stores, I commenced to baking.  Everything gets in the oven just fine, and I settle in to play with Emerson while it bakes.  As the house begins to fill with the lovely smell of cake, I become more and more proud of myself for making something for Chris.  But when I check the oven, this is what I find

Holy dumpy brown paste batman!

 I swear if this had been my pan I would have just thrown it out.  I honestly don't know what went wrong.  It could be that I bake in a toaster oven.  It could be that we got something in a ziploc bag that looked like flour but only had chinese writing on it and could have been an illegal substance for all I know.  It could be that aliens came in and stole my beautiful fluffy white cake and replaced it with an waste product from another world.  In the blink of an eye my hopes for being heralded as the next Paula Dean (I say that because for the first time all semester I was baking with butter) went down the toilet. Instead, I confessed to Chris that I had ruined his birthday cake and vowed to make him another one.  He actually said (before he saw it), 'Maybe we can still eat it, the frosting will make it taste better.'  No way was I letting his bday be ruined by my ineptitude.  So I went to work on another much more simple '1 egg cake' recipe.  And I am glad to say it turned out much better.

I still have no idea what went wrong but it was a good reminder to stay humble.


On to my birthday workout.  The Clovis, 10 miles, 150 burpees pull ups. (or for me, 10 miles, 150 burpees, 150 assisted pullups)

Can you see the fear on my face?  Cause its there.  I mean I figured I would get through it, I just figured it would take me the better part of the day.  Luckily, I was wrong:)  About 3/4 of the way through as I was finishing a round of burpees, I noticed my hand hurt.  Here's what I saw. 

Yikes, apparently doing burpees on the floor was not the best course of action.  But since 3/4 of the way is almost finished I wrapped my hand in my sweat towel and continued on.  Also, the towel made me feel much more hard-core.  Especially when I was doing the assisted pullups (since I only mastered the 1 minute pullup bar hang in the presidential fitness test in middle school).  Not gonna lie, it was tough, but I loved it!  Especially when it was over.

 And yes, I did change shirts.  I looked like someone had dumped a bucket of water over my head.

We are headed to Xi'an in a few weeks to hang out with some friends.  More on that later.