Finn knew coming alone to the supermarket was a terrible idea. He should have literally pried Kurt from Blaine's hands. He couldn't find a single thing on this list. Someday's he really wished Rachel wasn't a vegan, it would be so much easier. Not just that, every isle he went down had Christmas objects, one after the other.

Rachel's birthday was in December the month of all holidays. This made Finn's task difficult, all he wanted to do was bake her a cake that she could eat and of course give her the gifts he had already gotten for her. He'd already made a mess once by not giving her meat substitute and he wasn't prepared to do that again. He soon gave in once he saw a shop assistant and asked them. The man was very helpful, he was lucky that the store wasn't so busy and he was able to escort him around as the thing's he needed to bake a cake were in various isles.

"Thank you so much dude."

"No problem, some people have special diets and all that, I'm only happy to help."

Finn proceeded to the checkout to pay for everything, the next step would be the most challenging, the baking of it. He hoped that he could pull it off, if his mother, Kurt and eve Burt could manage to bake he could surely do it right?

Finn paid for the items and put them into a bag and proceeded to his truck to drive home. He had to give Rachel an excuse for being unable to see her until later this afternoon. He felt bad having to lie and telling her a number of cars had broken down so had to be in the garage until then. She didn't seem so happy but he promised he would be there no matter what. He wasn't completely lying, he just wanted to make an effort for her for once.

It took Finn fifteen minutes to get home due to traffic but once home he had to crack on with the cooking. He had a recipe out that he and Kurt had found on the internet for her that included her favourite fruit. Strawberries, yes he was going to make her a strawberry cake. Finn licked his lips and laid everything out, he even put on his mother's apron so as not to get his clothes all dirty. The scales, the bowl and all the utensil's were laid out in front of him. He took in a deep breath rubbed his hands together before starting.

"Ok Finn, just follow the instructions, remember to weight things and don't use anything that isn't on the list so it stays vegan. Right I got this…how hard can it be?" he said to himself.

His first job was to weigh out the flour, Finn though this would be the easiest part but unluckily for him the packaging was a little fiddly and he couldn't get it open. He wasn't sure why it was so fiddly and his patience was wearing thin. He made a little mistake and opened the bag with a hard tug. A cloud of flour puffed up from the bag and soon Finn was covered head to toe in it. He coughed and spluttered and stood still until the cloud had fallen.

"Damnit…"

Finn knew he would be making more of a mess so with that he just decided to clean the worse surface down so he could bake upon it. He then panicked a little, he looked in the bag and saw that only the top layer of flour had gone. He then sighed and began to weigh enough out slowly as not to make anymore of a mess. He did this too with the sugar and put it into a bowl.

Next was the water. He decided the mission from he tap to the bowl was to much so filled up a little jug. He then put the measuring spoon in, hoping to get enough but it didn't look quite right. He frowned and slowly poured it onto a spoon and smiled as he was successful and poured it into the mixture.

"So easy…yeah I can do this."

He slowly began mixing it before putting in some margarine, he measured it carefully and put it in, he mixed it up and began to see the mix coming together like when his mum baked. He smirked. He was actually baking.

Now for the hard part, Finn had never used a food processor before. He was a little worried about it. He got two punnets of strawberries and put them into the processor. He then put it on a slow spin. He didn't think it was working quick enough and being as wise as he should be. He forgot the lid. He switched it on and soon was greeted with a spray of strawberry, he fumbled and managed to turn it off.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

Finn walked to the sink and washed his face. He was covered in it.

"This is why I should have taken home economics class…"

Once he was cleaned up he took a deep breath and put the lid on finishing the mix and poured it into the mix and mixed it up. The mixture had come together despite how much of a mess the kitchen was in. He sighed, he despised cleaning up but he knew he had to since it was his mess. Next was the cake tin, he had been told to line it but he wasn't quite sure why. Finn got the baking paper and stuck it to the tin, he then gently poured the mix in.

Now for the baking. He set the egg timer that Kurt had given him to ensure he baked it correctly. He gently put the cake in and allowed it to bake. Now to clean the mess up, as much as he wanted Rachel to know he'd put a lot of effort in he didn't want the place to look messy for her birthday.

He quickly rushed around, cleaning every speck off the floor and surfaces, by the time he was finished, the egg timer went off he was too engrossed in the activities he was doing he didn't quite hear until he began to smell something. He quickly remembered and rushed to the oven, there was smoke.

Luckily it wasn't burnt too much, mainly around the edges but it meant that Finn had to alter his plans and had to make a better topping for it. He slowly cut all the burnt areas off which made the cake look wonky. He thought that layering the strawberries would solve it and it sort of did. He then looked at the time noticing it wasn't long before Rachel would be arriving. He quickly put the cake in the fridge and made a dash for the shower.

He cleaned himself up and put on a shirt and smart jeans. As soon as he'd fixed the door he heard the bell. Finn leaped down the stairs and took in a breath. He opened the door and saw his little princess.

"Happy birthday beautiful." he kissed her gently and let her in.

"Aww thank you Finn." Finn took of her coat and hung it up.

"Hmmm…I smell baking…" Finn smirked.

"That you do…" he walked to the fridge and brought out the cake.

"Wait…did you…no way…you baked it?" Finn nodded.

"Yeah…I hope it tastes ok…and look…I made it with vegan stuff…" he showed her some of the ingredients.

"Aww Finn, that is very sweet of you, thank you." She leaned up and kissed him.

The two of them enjoyed the cake, luckily it didn't taste at all like it had been burnt at all., Finn took this as a great success and knew next time he knew he could do anything he put his mind to.