Tag Archives: birthday

The cake itself was not an unqualified success, but that had nothing to do with the dog, and everything to do with me not focusing intently on the recipe. “Millionaires Pound Cake” requires 6 eggs, 1 pound of butter, and 3 cups of sugar. This is not a cake for the faint-hearted. It also took 2 hours and 15 minutes to bake, a good 35 minutes longer than the recipe actually called for. I didn’t butter and flour the pan, but choose to spray it with cooking spray, and it didn’t release perfectly. It also rose higher than the pan’s edges, and the parts that rose higher broke off when it was turned out. So, no, definitively, not an unqualified success, at least in the looks department. It did, however, taste delicious. My recipe came from a slip of paper in my recipe box. It’s been there for years, and I have no idea where it came from. However, when I googled “Millionaires Pound Cake”, I got several results, and this is very close to the recipe I used. http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,166,146161-225207,00.html. I used only a teaspoon of vanilla extract, not a tablespoon, and as I mentioned I baked it for a year and a half (anyway, it seemed like it) but otherwise the recipe is spot on. I had planned on lots of pretty pictures, but, well, read on.

The doggy disaster? Our dog Sparrow started getting sick about noon that day. Progressively, throughout the day, he had to be run out into the yard to, well, upchuck, more and more often. By the time people were due to arrive, I was really concerned. My husband was out of town. We (my son, our exchange student, my daughter, and I) were trying to eat dinner, get the cake looking decent, clean up after the dog, and anticipate his bouts with sickness. By the time we were trying to light the candles and serve the cake, the poor doggy was truly ill. I found him upstairs, trembling so hard he was nearly convulsing. Tears in my eyes, I ran downstairs where cheerful people were enjoying cake and ice cream and my son’s girlfriend’s fantastic apple pie, and announced, “We have to go!!” Within moments, we were frantically rounding up the dog, by now back downstairs being sick again, and apologizing profusely to guests, who were sitting in a bit of a state of shock. With help from dear friends, we got Sparrow to the ER vet and, while expensive x-rays showed nothing out of the ordinary, they kept our darling doggy overnight, on IV fluids and meds.

He’s home now, sweet pup, and resting. Six times a day I fix a special bland food diet for him, with meds mixed in, and he licks his lips in great anticipation. The cats think it smells pretty amazing, too, but they can’t have any.

Isn’t he sweet?