Hello, hello everyone. This is Tanya Dalton, owner of Inquell Press, and I'm here to give you another episode of The Weekender, a mini episode to help you end your week on the right note.

I've always loved cooking. Even as a kid, my mom would shake her head when I would

beg to watch Julia Child over watching cartoons. I know, I'm kind of weird like that. So a few

years ago, I decided I was ready to graduate to baking. Baking is so very different from cooking.

It's much more scientific and precise. I love it, but not as much as I love

cooking. And one of the traditions that began during this crusade to become a baker was that I started

baking everyone's birthday cakes from scratch. I baked lemon cakes for John, strawberry cakes for Kate,

chocolate cakes for Jack. And I enjoy baking these cakes,

even if they don't look like the cakes in the window of a pastry shop. This past fall, though,

around Kate's birthday, it was a really busy time. We were fresh off the fall launch of our planners,

we were prepping for the first launch of the course, and I had a few speaking events.

I was pooped, and the thought of baking a cake from scratch about did me in.

Tradition or not.

But I was going to do it.

No matter what, I had to make that cake.

I was determined not to let her down.

I didn't want her to think that she ranked last on my list of priorities.

One evening, about four days from Kate's birthday, we went out to grab some dinner and pick up my baking supplies.

I was stressed and tired and unmotivated, but I plastered a smile on my face and I enthusiastically herded us out the door.

I was doing this.

And as we went into the grocery store, we walked through the deli and I saw Kate peering at the cakes there.

Would you like me to buy you a cake? I teased, thinking that there was no way.

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