Thunder Cake

We haven't had thunder clouds in our forecast yet, but with spring well under way, it's only a matter of time, before we have a good crackle boomer. So, I was thrilled to find Patricia Polacco's Thunder Cake, at the library, this week.

It's the story of how the author overcame her fear of thunder, and many other fears in the process, while baking a very special cake, with her Russian grandmother, one summer, in Michigan.

The children objected to the grandmother's claim, that you can count the number of miles a storm is away, by counting the seconds between when you see the lightening, and when you hear the thunder. That is true, except the grandmother forgot to divide the number of seconds by five, so the storm was much closer than she thought (at least I'm pretty sure it's five seconds per mile, when it comes to timing thunder).

And, I'm not sure leading a child outside, through barnyards, and woods, as a thunderstorm approached would be the best idea. But, the story is very sweet, and the Thunder Cake recipe, included with the story, with a very interesting secret ingredient, was too tempting to pass up. The children decided it would probably be okay to make, even without a thunderstorm.


We were late getting started, and our cake didn't come out of the oven until bed time, so our tasting will have to wait until tomorrow. But, it smells pretty edible tonight.



Actually, I'm happy for the delay. While the children sleep, and the cakes cool, I'll have a chance to check out the additional resource materials on the author's website (the recipe for Thunder Cake is there too, just in case you're curious).

It's great to be a homeschooler.