Burger And "Volcano" Treat For Daniel's Birthday Celebration

Last December, I started to find out which months and days the Calvary Care Home (CCH) children had been born. To me who had grown up in a family which used to attach little importance to birthday celebration of the members, it was a big effort to recall all these boys' dates of birth which were not easy to remember.

Daniel's was among the last I had jotted down in the Calvary Life Assembly calendar because even he himself had no knowledge of it until I saw the date in one of the documents related to him and told him about it a few months ago.

The Sunday before 15 July, he reminded me, "This coming Thursday is my birthday!" Actually I had already planned to bake a cake for him during one of the following weekdays. His eager voice showed that he had been looking forward to his turn after participating in other boys' birthday celebrations this year. Knowing that he loved burgers to the extent of earning himself the nickname, a new idea popped into my mind. So I said to him, "I didn't forget. We're going to celebrate with burgers for dinner this Saturday."

Last Saturday afternoon, Luke and Daniel were the only boys around when I arrived at CCH. Daniel helped to spread margarine on the bread while Luke grilled it and the burget meat. Then I spread chopped cabbage mixed with mayonnaise, chili sauce, placed two slices of tomato and a piece of meat, spread chili sauce again and placed two slices of cucumber. When the meal was almost ready, the rest, except for John and Isaac who were still doing work in the church, came back from the tuition centre. They began to voice their preferences when I was serving the buns.

Paul said, "Add more chili sauce."

David said, "Don't put cucumber in my burger."

Matthew said, "I want one slice of cucumber only."

His foster father Albert P said, "Give me the slice that he doesn't want."

Daniel was already drooling at the mouth in front of his favorite fastfood but Luke had gone missing temporarily.

While waiting for Luke to come to the dining table, I offered the birthday star a choice between two burgers and one single burger with double meat. He chose the latter.

Finally, everyone's burger was unique.

This time, I had taken a coconut cake recipe that I had copied in France because it did not required any butter or margarine, which I thought would be a less fatty dessert after the high-calorie main dish. When it was out from the oven, I realised the consequence of not following exactly the measurements--It resembled an extinct volcano with fissure vents.

I also used the same ingredients to make muffins for Mum who happened to be in Melaka last weekend. After chewing one, she described it as "tough enough to beat a dog!" I hope she understood better why I always let my sister Ping be the birthday cake baker for our mother who had fragile teeth.

And below were the comments of CCH "guinea pigs" of my food experiment--

David said, "It isn't like the ones you made before." He must have been missing even the "earthquake" cake on Luke's birthday.

Albert said, "You can't find this kind of homemade cake in shops." The meaning behind was that shops would refuse to sell this product.

Sis Annie who dropped by simply frowned at the sight of the structure of the cake. Without even having a bite, she exclaimed, "Why so hard!" I quietly put two pieces in a beautiful box, and together with two burgers I passed the whole plastic bag to her to take away to share with her daughter Adrienne at home...

What happened to the leftover cake kept in the fridge later? The next day it was still there, only without the chocolate "lava" anymore. Maybe even John, my most faithful supporter, was not willing to take the risk to taste other layers of the "volcano".

John, I'll improve my baking skill for your coming birthday.