My Mom was a young mom, only 17 when she had me and she really know much about baking. She tells stories of her own early baking experiences: making biscuits that didn't rise and her Mother-in-Law coming to visit, and saying "oh--sugar cookies!" and biting into one before my Mom could stop her. Her earliest failures didn't stop her from continuing and turning out the best Cracklin Bran cereal bar cookies (we've lost the recipe!) or Salad Dressing Cakes made with cocoa and Miracle Whip, or homemade breads or dozens of other things. My earliest baking memories are of my Mom tracing around my hand on rolled-out cookie dough when I was only 2 or 3 years old. I have no idea what kind of dough it was, but I loved those cookies the best. My own first baking experience completely by myself was when I was around 8 or 10. I wanted to make my own birthday cake, so Mom gave me full reign of the kitchen. She had a copy of Betty Crocker's Boys and Girls cookbook and I chose to make a Christmas Tree Cake since my Birthday is in December. The recipe said to bake the cake in 9x11 dish and cut a triangle out of the middle, by cutting from each corner, at an angle and meeting in the center of the opposite end. That was supposed to be the bottom of the first layer. The two remaining smaller pieces, which were sort of triangles were to be turned over, with the long flat sides pressed together, to form the top layer of the cake. The problem was that the cake rose too much in the middle and was a little lopsided, to boot so the top layer had a huge gulf/gap in the middle. It probably need about 2 cups or more of frosting just to fill the gap to created a smooth, flat surface. I just had one box of Jiffy frosting mix, which I had colored green and there wasn't enough to fill the huge gulf in the middle of the top layer, especially since crumbs kept coming up and getting into the frosting, so I had to use more to cover up the crumbs. I ran out of frosting mix so I stopped in the middle of making it, walked all the way to the grocery store by myself, bought two more boxes of frosting...... I made one box, but couldn't remember how many drops of food coloring I used, so it came out a slightly different shade of green. And it wasn't enough frosting, anyhow. So I made the 3rd box. Same problem: different color of green. But that did the trick. It filled the gulf between the two smaller pieces of cake, forming the top triangle layer of the cake. But with so much frosting, in three different shades of green, it didn't look anything like the picture-perfect Christmas Tree in the cookbook. It just looked like a great big huge mound of green frosting with sprinkles on the platter! It was horrible, ugly, unappetizing, to say the least, but Mom put candles in it and served it when the family came over for the birthday celebration. We still joke about the "Christmas Tree Cake" all the time, 35+ years later. But the fact that she let me make it from start to finish and fix the problem all by myself was probably one of the best baking lessons she could have ever given me: just because you follow a recipe doesn't mean that it's going to turn out as you expect. There are factors you might not ever consider that will surprise you, but you think through your problem and try to find a solution. And even if it doesn't turn out as you expected, so what? It will still taste great. You just laugh and move on and the next time you remember to make more frosting than you think you'll need and count the drops of food coloring!

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