"Help," I said, "I feel like I'm on the verge of very messy."

But The Housemate rescued her own cake from the jaws of disaster (or splattering over the stove top, whichever), and here's the finished product:

A brief silence for eating cake, and then: "I think I like other people's birthdays almost as much as mine," I said.

The Housemate laughed. "Emily, you love your birthday."

I remembered how I was imagining my own birthday while I was making this cake tonight. "...Yeah, that's true."

Also true: I don't think I will ever get too old to ask for help scraping batter out of the bowl and into the pan.