Coordination

It's that time of year again. Time to make the Liquor Loaves. It's an operation that takes a fair amount of planning and coordination.

It starts in mid-October. First, it's check the freezer for what I already have on hand. This means finding it under everything else that gets frozen around here, pulling it out, weighing it, and recording it before stashing it all back in the freezer. Then, pull out the recipe and do some mental calculations, quadrupling the original recipe. And, berating myself for not already writing it all down with the quad-amounts.

Then, I go to the web site for my vendor and do more calculations . . . the weights they sell in, minus what I have on hand . . . and I make up my order. And, usually I stick a couple fun items in the shipment.

Between the end of October and Vets Day, I need to get the rest of the spices and ingredients. I need to make a trip to the booze store for rum and brandy. I think this year, I might have over-bought with half gallons of each. Maybe. Lastly, I make sure I have the cake tins and the foil and the plastic wrap and the rubbermaid tubs for storage. I did splurge this year and get the world's largest mixing bowl. I don't know where it's going to be stored the rest of the year, and it was sufficiently large as to inspire the Phenom to declare that NOTHING MORE MAY BE BROUGHT IN TO THIS KITCHEN. Hee hee.

Tomorrow night, I'll chop all the fruits and soak them over night in rum and brandy. Then, Friday morning, I'll get up early and start mixing the cakes. I'll make two doubled batches. It will take all day to chop the nuts, mix the batter, bake, cool, and wrap them. But, at the end, I'll have wonderful christmas gifts for my friends.

But, I'll leave you with a math problem:

The original recipe says that it makes 3 3X5 cakes. I use 3X5 aluminum tins. I quadruple the recipe. I fill all of the tins to being mounded at the top of the tin. I end up with 18 cakes. How?