frances cake, take one

there is a phenomenon in my life that i call the "friend crush." friend crushes work, basically, just like romantic crushes. i'll meet someone, maybe through a friend, maybe at a party. maybe i see them at church or i stalk them on facebook for a while. however it happens, i just *know* that i want to be friends. friend sparks fly, you might say.

from there it's also remarkably like a real crush. i get all cruddy and i trip over my words and i don't know what to say. i blush a lot. i get all nervous to ask for a phone number, and then i worry about calling too much, being too clingy. the trickiest part of a friend crush is also the same, too: the first friend date.

first dates are rife with all kinds of danger and awkwardness, and first friend dates are no exception. how do you extend the invitation? what will you do? what will you talk about? and so was born the idea of frances cake (i wish i could say i came up with it all on my own, but dallas was the one who thought of it first). the premise is simple. i pick a friend crush. i invite him or her over to my house to make a cake. frances cake to be exact. we make the cake, we bake the cake and we eat the cake, all while basking in our newfound love and friendship. brilliant, right?

my first frances cake outing was with amy.



amy and i have been in the same ward for a couple years now, but we never really hung out until recently. and i am glad we didn't wait any longer! we settled on chocolate cinnamon cake, with a chocolate-y walnut glaze. delicious, and the recipe was super simple.

while the cake was baking, i had time to practice my sweet break-dancing moves.



and a chance to get to know amy better. i learned that she used to name her pets after food (including two cats with oreo-related monikers), and that her dad sounds just like ross perot. she's from south carolina. she used to have long hair, but now it's sort and sassy, just like her (the sassy part, at least. she's actually pretty tall).

the cake baked up nicely,



but the frosting/glaze presented something of a challenge. the recipe said to put it on while the cake was still hot, but it didn't really drizzle. it needed to be spread. but spreading it tore the top of the cake because it was still warm. amy is pretty meticulous, and she was very carefully dabbing the frosting on, one spoonful at a time,



but we finally just dumped it all and spread it as fast and as best as we could.



the final result? success!



even susan, who was taking a "break" from sugar, made an exception and had a piece with us.



and the frances cake fun had just begun.