Dear Liza,
This week is the last week of school for you and your cousins, and end-of-the-year parties are in person and fun. For me, that means making cake.
I wish I could be in Salinas to make one for you. That’s not possible for now, but I got to learn something new anyway. Kestrel asked for a chocolate cake topped with strawberries. She also loves mushrooms (not real mushrooms on the cake, however).
Auntie Bridgett suggested I create a large mushroom out of sliced strawberries. That was half of a great idea, but I knew that sliced strawberries would bleed red juice all over the cake and make a mess. Grandpa Nelson suggested coating the slices with sugar, which was, again, half of a good idea.
Not sugar, but…. what? Ask the Internet! The solution is melted chocolate. Just put a layer of chocolate chips on a plate in the microwave for about 40 seconds, some careful knife-work, a few minutes in the fridge, and you have juice-proof slices.
Some frosting and piping tubes made the stem and frills, then I laid the chocolate-sealed strawberry slices like shingles until I had mushroom type shape. Some chopped chocolate chips made the forest floor. It maybe could be a tree, and that’s okay, too.
At Kestrel’s Promotion Picnic, the cake was revealed, appreciated, and eaten all up.
Nice work if you can get it, as they say.
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 
֍ And you can get it if you try ֍
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Lovin’ those strawberries.
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