Bake Sale Drama

By Rachel

“I have CDO. Its like OCD but the letters are in the right order like they should be.” – Unknown

Recently, I served as the chairwoman of a bake sale to raise money for our local women’s shelter. It was a great cause and I was happy to do it. I tend to overcommit myself and like always, I had several other obligations along with the bake sale. Now you need to understand that when I get stressed or overwhelmed, my OCD kicks in and I tend to do things WAY over the top …… and then later deal with the aftermath.

Here's what happened: people began dropping off their baked goods at my house. I could see that they were packaged in less than attractive ways – one was wrapped in 4^th of July bags and a few looked like they had been tossed from the car window. They certainly didn't match my fall themed table décor. I found myself preoccupied with this disaster and HAD to fix it. So I decided to redecorate/repackage the items so that everything matched my color scheme. I got out of bed in the middle of the night and tore through all of my fall decorations. My husband was mortified when he saw what I was doing. He told me I needed professional help. If I had a dime for every time he has said that to me, I'd have $ 6,237.40. Geez. I told him to mind his own friggin’ business. (Someone needs to tell my husband that these are dangerous conversations to have at 3 a.m. when I am in an OCD rampage.)

When the day of the sale arrived, a few of us showed up early to set up the table. It was then that I realized I had gone waaaaay too far. Women asked me where their baked goods were. Shit! I pretended not to hear them or I changed the subject.  I ended up buying some of the items I had completely redone just to hide the evidence. Maybe I should seek therapy for this….

The next time you and your friends get together, make this fabulous Pumpkin Spice Cake. But don't invite me. I might do something to it. 

Pumpkin Spice Cake

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup canned pumpkin

¾ cup light brown sugar

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon allspice

4 eggs

For glaze:

1 cup butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1 to 1.5 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Combine cake mix, pumpkin, brown sugar, oil, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Beat for 1 minute. Add eggs. Beat 2 minutes more. Pour ½ cake mixture into greased bundt pan. For topping (glaze), melt butter with brown sugar. Add nuts. Pour half of glaze mixture on top of cake batter. Pour remaining cake batter on top of glaze. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 – 50 minutes or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto plate. When completely cool, drizzle remaining topping (glaze) on cake.