The Punishment Cake
This family story has been relayed from generation to generation, and so it is told that my Nana asked for her friend’s angle food cake recipe that my grandfather was raving about, having tasted it when the friend served it for dessert at her dinner party.
As you know, baking is a science with exact measurements of ingredients, whereas cooking is a little bit of this and that, by comparison. In other words, I’m only saying that cooking is a little more forgiving than baking :)
Well my Nana was a very good cook, but not much of a baker, so when the recipe called for egg whites, Nana added the yokes as well. When the recipe called for a cup of sugar, Nana used a tall drinking glass, that held about 16 ounces. And, when this white cake mixture looked too white, according to Nana’s sensibilities, she added several “cups” of strong, dark coffee that had been percolating on the stove most of the day! Throughout the process, Nana improvised and added golden raisins that she boiled to a syrupy soup.
And when it was finished, the only thing this cake had in common with the angle food cake, was the bunt pan! This cake weighed about 10 pounds, had a hard, outer crust, with a moist inside; as it turned out, the raisins were a preservative of sorts. Seriously, this cake could last for months!
When Nana returned the favor, and invited the friend over for dinner, she served the cake. The friend then asked what it was, and Nana said with astonishment, “Why Mary, this is your angle food cake!”
As for the name, Punishment Cake, seems that friends and family alike loved the results of this heavy, dark fruit cake, so the more Nana received praise, the more she baked this cake. But too much of a good thing resulted in one family member getting tired of eating it day after day, and finally blurted out, “Enough, Nana, you’re punishing me!”
So what does this have to do with dog training, you’re wondering? Well, with the availability of information traveling at warp speed from the internet, TV or even self-proclaimed experts, the average dog-parent has access to a lot of training “recipes”, but may not understand how easy it is to go off course, so to speak, by adding a little of this and a little of that. Unfortunately, without some clear direction and “recipes” backed by scientific principles, it’s easy to end up with some unintended consequences, just like my Nana’s Punishment cake creation.
As my mentors, Drs. Suzanne Hetts and Dan Estep, have taught their students over the years: “Think critically, train creatively, focus on the animal and follow the science.”
If you want to learn how to train your dog, please look for a positive reinforcement trainer or behaviorist who follows the science, otherwise, you may end up with a “big heavy fruit cake” of dog-behavior that is a bit difficult to digest, and it may be preserved for a long, long time!
Bon Appétit!
HAPPY TRAINING & ENRICHMENT!
© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2021
