It was my mother's birthday, and I wanted so badly to make her a cake. I was barely old enough to reach the counter, but with a step stool I got access to everything I needed. Mom had taught me how to bake cakes, but we hadn't got to the frosting creation lesson. I think I was about 7 yrs old, and wanted to surprise her. I mixed up the cake and baked it fine, however when it came to the frosting recipe, it called for confectioner's sugar. Not knowing there was a difference, I used regular table sugar. Of course it never came out right, and I was so scared of admitting that I had wasted ingredients, so I dumped the frosting into an empty coffee can, put a lid on it and went out to the yard and buried it. We lived on a farm, so while mom was outside working in the garden, I was able to get through all of this. I didn't tell her about the frosting part until later years, and then she just laughed about it all. She is a great mom, and she would have understood even back then, and just showed me how to make it, but i was too afraid to admit my failures. A lot of growing up has come out of that one can of sugar frosting! (I wonder if I could dig it up nowadays and see what it turned out to be?)

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