Wednesday, February 20, 2008

We are building a religion, a limited edition. We are now accepting callers for the pendant keychains.

Sometimes, or maybe all the time, I will pick a topic and stick to it.

I am currently all about The Cake.

Seriously. Lately, I can turn anything back to cake.

“That’s such a pretty sweater! You know, that color would look really nice as an accent on my cake.”

“It’s so nice to meet you. So if you had to choose between lemon and vanilla…”

It’s ridiculous.

As soon as we got engaged my dad said that he’d had the best cake ever - not just the best wedding cake, but the Best. Cake. Ever. at the wedding of the daughter of a friend. And my dad is a man who likes his cake.

He emailed the friend, who walked down the hill to find the bakery closed. She then did some investigation and tracked down the baker. Anyway, after a series of emails, we determined we’d speak at 5 pm on Monday.

So all weekend, the cake was my happy place. There was a lot more going on than just animals this weekend, and high emotion around a couple issues. And so, when the tension would mount, I’d retreat to Cakelandia.

We’d be all clenched and tense, and out of the blue I’d say, “Do you think chocolate or vanilla?”

“What?”

“Or something else entirely?”

“Huh?”

“Oh. The cake.”

My retreat to The Cake wasn’t just for when things were tense. We’d be driving along some lovely country road. And to me, all lovely country roads in the rural US look alike. They’re pretty. But not all that different.

But Nick was excited about being where he grew up, and wanted to take me down his favorite back roads, and so, lulled by the motion of the car and the bucolic scenery, I’d go into cake reveries.

Betty and I speak the same language, which means that if we had talked cake anytime in the past couple weeks, then, after just discussing the features of a Victorian house, if I asked, “But would it be weird to have chocolate?”

She’d say, “Of course not. You should have whatever kind of cake you want.”

We could be talking about the upcoming election, and she could say, “But not too sweet.”

And I’d be all, “Oh, no. I hate really sweet icing.”

So I spoke to the Cake Lady on our drive home Monday. And I was all kinds of excited about cake possibilities. Because she makes really, really pretty cake. Like, ohhhh, wow cakes.

The truth is, there are a lot of details I don’t care about. But I want a ginormous, frou-frou, decadent, delicious, garden of flowers exploded all over, so tall it’s a feat of engineering, cake. Nobody would expect this of me, but it’s true.

Traffic between Philly and DC was heavy on Monday evening, perhaps because we chose rush hour to drive. And the weather sucked ass. And you know how stupid people get in the rain.

Nick would get all annoyed at someone who cut us off, and I’d be all, “You know, lilies would be really pretty up the side.”

Like, cake is the answer to all our problems. That driver might be an asshole, but cake will fix it.

16 comments:

  1. Mmmmm, cake.... You're making me hungry! But I do have some Meyer lemons and kickass lemon sponge cake recipe.

    You should definitely go for the completely, rediculously, overthetop cake if that's what your heart desires! It's your wedding, and it'll (hopefully) only happen once, so do what you want!

    And isn't it great to have friends like that where you can completely change gears in the middle of a conversation and they follow you? That's what best friends are made of. And possibly cake!

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  2. I had this cake with cascading calla lillies 15 years ago and it can still make me smile. CakePower.

    http://www.konditormeister.com/photos/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=10&g2_page=17&g2_navId=xafe37628

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  3. I'm partial to lemon cake, if it matters.

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  4. ohhh i just love love love hearing about you planning the wedding :) it's just such a wonderful thing. i look forward to your next wedding-based obsession!

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  5. I love how much fun you're having with the cake. People remember the wedding cake! Ours was oval shaped, which I lo-ved.

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  6. Sarah - Ohh, lemon sponge cake sounds fantastic.

    Cheryl - Oooh, pretty! Thank you for sharing!

    Kerrie - Absolutely it matters! I love a good lemon cake too.

    moosie - I'm so glad to hear that! I was thinking, oh, god, people are going to just start thinking I'm the boringest human on the planet because I'm going to be so wedding focused.

    HKW - I love cake, and I love really pretty wedding cakes! I hadn't even begun to think of alternate shapes...

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  7. Cake? No, no my friend! Cakes. Plural. One big marvel of modern engineering, and one sturdy groom's cake in a contrasting color and flavor.

    One vanilla and one chocolate raspberry, maybe?

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  8. If it's truly a marvel of engineering, it will have multiple types of cake. I think the cake at my sisters wedding reception had four types of cake. All of the delicious. Unfortunately, I was not in a mental state to enjoy any of them. Indian receptions are stressful. But I did enjoy them at the tasting.

    mmmm... Cake.

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  9. We ended up doing separate flavors in different layers. Lemon (poppyseed?) with raspberry filling, and chocolate with raspberry filling. We were going to do butter cake with apricot filling, but I fell too much in love with the lemon. Then they were all "tied together" by the same buttercream frosting. Mmmmm.

    LG-- I can send you pics if you want them. Also, do you want the lemon sponge cake recipe? It takes a while and gets every dish you have dirty, but oh is it good!

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  10. cake IS the answer to all of the world's problems!

    even if you go with the first baker, go cake tasting to a bunch of bakers. that was THE BEST part of wedding planning, hands down!

    i'm getting hungry just thinking about it. have fun!

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  11. Lisa, hi! I've read for a while but this is my first time commenting! I really enjoy your blog and relate to many of your stories. I love your insight and perspective on things.

    This post brightened my day as it made me think about my boyfriend who absolutely adores cake and think it makes the world a better place. As does your blog :)

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  12. Cake and flowers. That was my favorite part of the planning. I hated dress shopping, but cake and flowers?

    Yeah!

    Very simple, smooth white frosting, with vanilla and chocolate layers, decorated with wispy, green ferny things (almost feathery) and lavendar on the top and ivy trailing around it.

    It was 1988. I won't even begin to describe my dress. Hideous!

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  13. Mark - A reason to have more than one cake? This is fantastic!!!

    VVK - Yah - if you're family in an Indian wedding, there's lots of stress involved. Four types of cake! I have to say, Indian sweets are among my favorite things on the planet - probably even loved more than western cake.

    Sarah - That sounds crazy delicious. Yes, absolutely, I would so love to see pictures. And would be sooo delighted with the recipe. I just left a note on your blog. Thanks so much!

    MrsMac - Wow - I never thought of that. What a fantastic idea! So much cake! Thanks!

    Rel - I'm so delighted to hear that! Thanks so much!

    DCup - Ooooh. Sounds very, very pretty. Yah - I'm not dress shopping, but am totally with you - psyched about cake and flowers. But mostly cake.

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  14. you should have lemon in the cake, in a nod to your blog.

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  15. Um, I love the hell out of this post and everything in it. I equally love the hell out of you creating a "wedding" tag :)

    I know all little girls dream about their wedding (okay, this isn't just little girls, I do it as a big girl now too!), and I can honestly tell you that the only thing I ever think/fantasize about is the food, especially the cake. Okay, okay, and sometimes the ring (oh, and the spending my life with someone I love part, that too).

    But the CAKE! I want to get married so I can go to bakery/catering tastings. Is this a terrible reason? Is this why the divorce rate is so high?!

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  16. you're not dress shopping yet or dress shopping ever?

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