A Cook's Notebook: Chocolate Cake for Stanley

From: Ali Berlow
Series: A Cook's Notebook
Length: 03:08

Baking a cake for my father-in-law who has Alzheimer's Read the full description.

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Playing: A Cook's Notebook: Chocolate Cake for Stanley
From: Ali Berlow

Chocolatecakestanley_small A Cook's Notebook - reflections on food and cooking in our kitchens and in our lives - airs weekly on WAMC first broadcast on WCAI o Jan. 21, 2004 PROMOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

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Piece Description

A Cook's Notebook - reflections on food and cooking in our kitchens and in our lives - airs weekly on WAMC first broadcast on WCAI o Jan. 21, 2004 PROMOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

Transcript

I was well on my way to making a mess of that cake. I nearly burnt the chocolate melting on stove because I was so distracted and anxious. I couldn't follow the recipe or figure out whether I was supposed to cream the butter and then add the sugar and eggs, or vice versa. There I was, stiff and awkward in my own kitchen. My in-laws were coming for dinner and chocolate cake is one of my father-in-law's favorite desserts. I wanted so hard to get it just right.

Stanley has Alzheimer's disease and he'd had a difficult afternoon in a paranoid, delusional kind of a way. We weren't even sure if he would leave his house to join us for the meal.

He's in what they call 'severe cognitive decline'. It's the last stage before he loses touch all with the world. Soon, and nobody knows when, he won't be able to respond or interact with his environment; his power of speech will be gone and so will...
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