Monday Memories: Angel Food Cake

Quite some time ago, I decided to do a segment on my blog called "Monday Memories". It lasted all of two weeks. Today I was remembering something that happened to me, and I thought, "Hey, I could blog that– plus, it's Monday." So, without further adieu, Monday Memories:

My parents decided to take a trip to the motherland (Scotland) with my dad's siblings for two weeks. With my parents out of town, and my other siblings out of the house, Kirsten (two years older) was put in charge of making sure Matt and I didn't get into too much trouble. However, my parents set up a terribly perverse incentive, and told Kirsten that whatever money she didn't spend on food she could keep for herself. So naturally, Kirsten didn't buy us food.

Eventually, Matt and I could no longer take eating the cans of pork and beans from the food storage. Instead of risking mutiny, Kirsten gave me twenty dollars to take to Macey's to buy some food. I took two of my trusty friends to the store to help me maximize my utility (there's the econ nerdiness coming out). After we were done, we decided to reward our thriftiness with an angel food cake.

We went home, sat on my front lawn, divided the cake into three, and then one of us had the brilliant idea to turn it into a contest to see who could finish first without touching it with her hands. Who knew that angel food cake could be so terrible? By the time I was to the final bites, my weak gag reflex** was provoked, and I nearly lost everything that I had already consumed. In between gags, all I could say was, "It smells like worms."

 In the meantime, the three of us struggled amidst gags and laughter to finish our piece. I'm not sure that any of us actually finished our third of the cake, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone did given the level of competitiveness of which we are all capable. What I do know is that none of us wanted to eat angel food cake for a long time afterward. Here's a photo from later that summer:

(Embarrassing aside: I remember that Shalon and I were there, but I can't remember if the third person was Tasha or Jenilyn. I think it's Jenilyn, especially because of Tasha's expression in this picture. If she had been there, she would not be looking so pleasant.)

Moral of the story: don't try to eat a third of an angel food cake in one sitting without the use of hands.

*I used to use egg whites as hair mousse in high school until one day I was driving to school and started gagging when I smelled the egg whites in my hair. Matt just laughed at me while my eyes watered and I nearly lost my breakfast.