Friends Don't Let Friends Eat Cake and Drive

I was told years ago, that you’re an alcoholic if you do these things:

1. Drink alone

2. Drink to solve your problems

3. Have more than two drinks each night

I know I’m not an alcoholic because:

1. Drink alone: uh, yeah, of course. You can’t wait until bunches of people are around.

2. Drink to solve your problems: why else would you drink?

3. Have more than two drinks each night: I don’t. I have a big Thermo-ware mug, sort of Big Gulp size.

My great friend Terry Lee Stone just wrote a cookbook with Krystina Castella, Booze Cakes. My response to this book did alarm me a little bit. Terry explained that much of the alcohol is baked out when you cook the cake, but the frosting would still have 100% of the alcohol. I don’t particularly like cake, but I immediately wanted to know if I could make a white cake with a cream frosting and maintain the alcohol level. “We should have a booze cake party,” I told Terry. It now occurred to me that I would probably like the cakes in Terry’s book. I also thought this would be a great gift to bring when invited to dinner. Some of the recipes look great, such as the Tequila Sunrise Cake. I usually stay away from tequila. It makes me do bad things like knock off 7-11s. But I’m all for this version. And I’m sure it won’t end up like The Days of Wine and Roses, or Less Than Zero. I can hold my cake.