09/14: Having your cake

It was big.  It was blue.  It was a thing of beauty.  It was a birthday cake for a one year old.  Will he remember it?  I doubt it.  Certainly there will be more than enough documentation of it’s existence so that when he is older he can look back on those photos and hopefully appreciate the artistry that went into making his cake.  His parents could tell him how great it tasted and tease him about looking like a smurf on his first chocolate buzz.  But let’s face it, the cake was really more for the grown-ups’ enjoyment than for kids’–at least those under the age of three.

Truth be told, I had very few memorable birthday cakes until I was an adult.  Now part of the reason had to to do with the fact that up until probably the age of nine or ten, all my birthday cakes were of the bland spongy, fluffy cream and fruit variety found in Chinese bakeries. Chocolate didn’t even enter the picture until I was twelve and I think that was courtesy of Duncan Hines.

I guess that’s why I take cake very seriously, both as a baker and as a dessert lover.  Once you’ve had something made with love by someone who shares your passion for cake, anything else pales by comparison.  The best and most memorable ones I’ve had:  my friend Z, who’s really not a baker but spent hours making her mom’s chocolate cake for me–a little lopsided, but wonderful nevertheless; a classmate from culinary school who introduced me to red velvet cake; my friend Cecilia, who made me a lovely cheesecake because layer cakes weren’t really her forte but that cheesecake was; my friend Nicole who made me an awesome giant pink snowball for my fortieth.  Whether it’s for a special occasion, like a birthday or wedding, cake should be a joyous sensory experience.  Your taste buds should be doing the “happy dance.”

I think my friend Carrie had the right idea when she said, after seeing a picture of the big blue cake, which was actually a devil’s food cake with banana cream and dulce de leche, that when she was reincarnated she wanted that cake for her first birthday.  We should all be allowed a do-over, to have our cake and eat it too!

Posted September 14th, 2010  |  2 Comments