Ugly Cake

There are two things people should know about me if our relationship is going to function properly.  These facts will also be important for the sake of this blog post.  

1.  I love to bake.

2.  I love my birthday more than anyone else on the planet loves their's.  

As my birthday was approaching last year I had a friend tell me that I should just make my own birthday cake because it would taste better than anything anyone else baked.  I decided to heed that advice and set out to construct two delicious cakes I had seen on Pinterest.  My birthday always falls during or right after finals week.  I had already finished all of my finals, so I went to work for a few hours and then came home to bake away my 22nd birthday until my friends were done with class and work.  One of the cakes was a simple cream cheese pound cake with fresh fruit garnish.  The other was a salted caramel hazelnut cake.  The pound cake slid out of my coveted Nordic Ware bundt pan perfectly, but the salted caramel hazelnut cake (heretofore called ugly cake) had some challenges.  

I greased the pan with butter and a dusting of cocoa as I had done many times before for various different recipes, but when I went to remove the cake from the pan it stuck in some areas and was an abomination to my Food Network standards.  I was so angry I wanted to just throw it away.  Luckily I received a text message from a friend at this point asking if I wanted to go get some dinner for my birthday.  I gave ugly cake a look of exasperation and left it on the counter as I bounded out my apartment to celebrate my birthday with another dinner (I celebrate my birthday the entire month of April, so while this was the only dinner I ate on my actual birthday, I had already celebrated at many an eating establishment in the Provo area throughout the month).  

After eating dinner, running to Target, getting some Cold Stone, and listening to Taylor Swift's 22 against my will, we went back to my apartment to figure out the fate of ugly cake.  I decided to frost it with the delicious Nutella frosting I had whipped up to see if it would look prettier.  It didn't.  I soldiered on anyway and started to make the homemade caramel drizzle for the top of the cake and left that in a storm of frustration after I spilled caramel on my favorite skirt.  My friend jumped in and dealt with the simmering pot of diabetes, at which point he spilled some on his pants as well. Somehow we finished every aspect of the cake and assembled it into the ugliest cake that was ever baked west of the Mississippi. 

Ugly Cake in all of its glory.

As the first guests arrived to wish me a happy birthday I warned them about ugly cake.  People began eating it and pointed out that while it was kind of ugly it was delectable.  The Nutella and sea salt caramel complimented each other perfectly as they graced the top of the homemade cocoa cake.  I was going to throw ugly cake in the dumpster, but instead it was entirely consumed and thoroughly enjoyed by the end of birthday week.  The beautiful pound cake didn't have the same fate because it just wasn't as tasty as ugly cake.  As I was reflecting on ugly cake a few weeks after my birthday I realized that too often people look at themselves like I looked at ugly cake.  When I was thinking about serving a mission I told Heavenly Father I couldn't do it because I didn't have the talents a mission requires.  He quickly brought ugly cake to my remembrance.  I have flaws and I'm not a perfect missionary or follower of Christ, but I have talents that make me meaningful.  My frosting is dripping, my caramel is a mess, my cake fell apart on its way out of the pan, and my hair rarely looks good, but I still taste good.  We're all a little rough around the edges, but like ugly cake we have a lot to offer if we give ourselves the opportunity to bless others' lives.  We all have something that we believe we're unqualified to do, but we need to remember the words of Thomas S. Monson, "When we are on the Lord's errand, we are entitled to the Lord's help. Remember that whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies."  This quote doesn't just apply to those who are working full time on the Lord's errand.  If you're trying to uplift others, serve your community, or be a good member of your family you're on the Lord's errand and he will qualify you.  Sometimes we tell ourselves that we aren't as good as the perfect pound cake because our very visible qualities aren't up to par.  But at the end of the day it's what makes up the cake that makes it delicious, not how well it slid out of the pan.