good for her self-esteem, bad for my waistline

One of my girls struggles with not being the oldest. I might as well just tell you, it's my second. She looks at her older sister and is sometimes just plain angry that she isn't the oldest and she asks, "What am I good at." Her sis just seems to be good at everything, because, well, she's had two years more practice. But this isn't an answer that my girl in question is willing to accept.

Well, let me tell you. She found something she is good at. Baking. And she can't get enough of it. Over the last two weeks she has made peanut butter banana bread, cinnamon banana bread, banana bread with a chocolate glaze, chocolate banana bread, black forest cake, and this lovely double-layer vanilla cake with a lemon custard filling. The cool thing is she had learned to improvise and made variations--something that I am not bold enough to do. She learned this from her Grandma who is brave enough to let them experiment in the kitchen and knows something of baking without a recipe. (What?! You can do that?)

I've gotten pretty good at resisting the temptation of all these goodies in the house with me. All. Day. Long. But her daddy had to sit her down and tell her she needs to find an additional outlet for her baking bug. Anyone want some cake?