Quarantine Christmas Baking Blues

“Christmas isn’t the same without Gramma with us,” Dana complained, her little fists pounding the couch cushions.

“Your foot is touching me!”  Mia said. She sat up and promptly whacked Dana in the face with a pillow. The sisters engaged in an impromptu pillow fight, shouting and giggling until things got too rough and little Dana began to cry.

“Stop the fighting,” Zoe demanded, pushing the two apart and comforting Dana. When her crying ceased, Zoe continued. “Mom should be home in an hour, and we don’t want her to see the house like this. Let’s tidy up this place!”

Fifteen minutes flew by, the girls a tornado of dusting, picking up, and straightening. Tired, the three of them sat down on the couch, Dana in Zoe’s lap. Mia started to text, but Zoe stopped her with an iron gaze. 

`“I still miss Gramma.” Dana whined.

“Honey, we all miss Grandma,” Zoe said, patting Dana’s back comfortingly. “It’s just not safe right now to be with her.”

“I miss her food,” Mia remarked.

“That’s it!” Dana cried. “We can make Grandma’s food! Her carrot cake!” Mia’s phone chimed and she eagerly picked it up. 

“Shoot,” Mia said, her mood quickly declining.. “Mom’ll be home late. She said she’s picking up dinner, but not to expect it until around 7:00.” The girls looked at the clock-5:13. 

“Well,” began Zoe. “We can try to make the carrot cake. We can surprise Mom when she gets home!” Mia and Dana agreed, and they all went into the kitchen.

“Well, the recipe is in here somewhere. Try the cookbook.” Zoe directed.

“Nope,” said Mia after a quick flip through.

“The drawer?” Zoe suggested. And so it went on like that, the girls looking in any possible place, but to no avail. They determined it must be at Grandma’s house, but Mia and Zoe had made it many times with Grandma before and decided to give it a shot.

“Carrots, of course. Sugar, eggs, cream cheese…” Mia listed, Zoe and Dana retrieving the ingredients as she barked them out. Not too long after they had began, they realized they didn’t have some of the things they needed. No cooking oil or nutmeg. Substituting things as they went, they shredded carrots, sifted sugar, and melted butter.

“Mix these ingredients, Dana,” Zoe instructed, taking her little hand and helping her handle the whisk. Laughing, Dana knocks the bowl over and claps her hands.

“Oopsie! Oopsie!” she smiled and spread the batter around.

“Darn it, Dana!” Mia scolded, scraping the batter into the bowl with a spatula. They poured the batter into the pan and put it in the oven.

“How hot?” Zoe asked.

“I don’t know, 450 for an hour?” Mia suggested. Zoe shrugged and put in the cake, mistakenly putting it in before the oven could preheat. 

“I don’t feel like making home made frosting,” Zoe complained. “Too much work.”

“We could use yogurt?” Dana suggested.

“Sure,” Mia said. After only waiting forty minutes for the cake, their noses were struck with the scent of burning. Zoe flew to the stove, oven mitts on, and pulled the cake, now black, out.

“You said an hour, Mia!” Zoe yelled, opening the window to let out the smoke. She took the brick of cake, cut it out with a knife, (they hadn’t buttered the pan) and thrown it into the garbage can.

“I don’t know, that’s what I remember!” Mia defended.

“Well, it’s only been two-thirds that time, and look at that mess! Not to mention it smells like Satan threw a flamethrower in here!” Zoe scolded. Dana once again began to weep, and Zoe rubbed her shoulders. 

“It’s okay, Dana. I just got frustrated is all.” Zoe soothed. 

“Why don’t we call Grandma and ask her?” Mia suggested.

“You know, that's actually a good idea.” Zoe admitted. Mia retrieved the laptop from the dining room table and opened the video chat. After fifteen minutes of frantic emailing and frustration, Grandma finally answered their request and appeared on the screen.

“Gramma!” Dana cheered.

“Hi, Grandma,” Zoe greeted.

“Hello, hon!” Grandma smiled. “I miss you so much!”

“We do, too. With this quarantine, we’ve all been a bit homesick for your cooking.” She explained with a slight smile.

“So I see,” Grandma replied, noting the mess of bowls and stray ingredients on the counter behind them.

“We need your help. We’re trying to make carrot cake, just like you used to do,, but everything’s going wrong.”

“Don’t worry, dear. I can help you. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees...” At this Zoe gave Mia a death glare. They beat the sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

“The eggs are room temperature, right?” Grandma asked.

“Now they are,” Zoe laughed. “They’ve been on the counter for nearly an hour. Why?”

“It makes the cake nice and fluffy!”

“Grandma, we don’t have cooking oil.” Mia remarked. 

“Use avocado oil. It’s just as good!” Grandma advised. 

Flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, carrots, walnuts. Bake.

“How long?” 

“Fifty five minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.”

“We did forty minutes on 450 degrees and it gave us a black brick!” Mia explained. 

“It smelled yucky!” Dana yelled.

“I’m sure it would, with the oven so hot!” Grandma explained. “Put it in the oven. Now, frosting.” Grandma taught them how to make delicious frosting and how to frost the cooled cake evenly.. 

“Bye, Grandma!” Dana, Mia, and Zoe said.

“Bye, sweeties!” Grandma said, leaving the meeting. 

“I’m home!” The girls all ran to the door to hug their mom, who finally arrived. “What smells so nice?”

“Cake!” Dana yelled.

“I can see that!” Mom sighed, observing the mess.

“I told them to clean it earlier but we got busy!” Zoe said.

Mom smiled and helped them clean up the mess. After they ate the pizza she brought home, they indulged themselves and ate the whole cake. 

Thanks for reading! In the comments I am linking the recipe this was based off of! Delicious and absolutely perfect with hot cider or cocoa!