The Curse of the Red Velvet Cake

There is a story from when I was about 5 yrs. old that has taken on epic proportions in my mind. It involves a birthday celebration for my little sister Shannon, red velvet cake, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and the entire family throwing up all night long! If you have ever seen red velvet cake on its way back up, you would understand why a five year old would think it looked alot like blood! For years, in my mind, the blame for the miserable night was placed squarely on the red velvet cake/mint chocolate chip ice cream combination. I refused to eat either of them because I was certain they would make me throw up!

As I got older and was studying nutrition in college, I realized that what we probably experienced as a family, was a case of food poisoning that had nothing to do with the cake or the ice cream, but was actually caused by something we ate for dinner. The funny thing is, no one remembers what we ate for dinner! In the past few years, I have finally been able to eat and enjoy mint chocolate chip ice cream again, but red velvet cake continues to turn my stomach.

Now I am grown and have children of my own, including a 17 year old daughter who thinks that red velvet cake sounds absolutely scrumptious! It started somewhere around Christmas....

Shelby: "Mom, have you ever had red velvet cake?"

Me: "Yes, and I would NEVER eat it again!"

Shelby: "Why not, does it taste bad."

Me: "To be honest with you, I cannot even remember what it actually tastes like.....but it looks like blood when you throw it up!"

I shared with her the story, which she laughed off (mostly because she hadn't been there!), but failed to convince her that there was no reason to try red velvet cake. The next day she came home from her job at the grocery store with a red velvet cake mix and a container of cream cheese frosting.

I continued to try to discourage this desire of hers by putting the cake mix in the back of my pantry where it wouldn't be noticed every time she got something out. It worked for a month, but yesterday Shelby decided it was time to make the red velvet cake!

She chose to make it as cupcakes, but I would not be tricked! I glanced over a few times while she was adding the ingredients; the water and oil made it look suspiciously like throw up. I informed her then that I would NOT be trying her cake. When the baking was finished, Chris and I had to leave for a fireside with Caleb. She rounded up the little kids for a taste test. I was glad to be leaving!

When we got back home, I could tell it was not a huge success because there were lots of cupcakes left. I warned Shelby that if anyone started puking during the night I would be blaming it on her!

Somewhere around 2:00 am, Savannah stumbled into my room crying "I just threw up!" I rolled out of bed and went up to her room to find red velvet cake throw up splattered across her bed, blankets, stuffed animals, all over the wall and dripping down along the wall to the carpet. It did, indeed, look suspiciously like blood.

In your rational mind, I am sure you probably see this as an unfortunate coincidence.....I do not.

There will be no more red velvet cake in this household!