Cakes

Prewritten on September 30.

I am sitting here in the Edmonton airport, thinking about cakes. This is because I began to think about cakes after reading Susan Plett's blog on Friday (see "Accidental Poet" in my blogroll), but I had to stop thinking about cakes and suddenly switch to thinking about Getting to Edmonton.

I ought to be thinking about THE FACE, which I have to hand in tomorrow, but the airport is not the place to descend to the Deeper Level I need to think about THE FACE. So I'm back to thinking about cakes.

10 Good things about cakes

1. I had one for breakfast at a Tim Horton's. You can't go to Canada without eating at Tim's, but you don't have to eat cake. I ate it because I saw a yummy looking carrot cake in the display case. It would have been better if it had been warmed.
2. Cakes are delicious.
3. Cakes are hospitable. No matter how many people come for dinner, you can always stretch a cake so there's enough for everyone.
4. Cakes are creative. You can bake them in almost any shape, and decorate them with almost anything--it doesn't even have to be edible. You can also make cupcakes, which are extremely portable--even tossable.
5. People only care what a cake looks like until you begin to eat it. Once the cake is sliced, you can take off the plastic football guys, totally ruin the design, or crumble it all over someone's plate. No one cares.
6. Cakes are festive. What's a party without a cake?
7. Cakes are extraverted. You see a cake, you want to invite people in to share it.
8. Cakes are kid-friendly. They can help with the mixing, the icing, or even the picking-out at Sam's.
9. Cakes have calories as well as sugar, flour, milk and eggs. And if you add vegetables, as in a carrot cake, you can eat the entire food pyramid in one dessert.
10. Cakes keep for days. If you have a cake on hand, you're always ready for company.

Not so Good Things About Cakes
1. They're big. If you're on a diet, cakes stick around forever and whisper your name.
2. They're calorie-dense. There just aren't enough vegetables in a cake to negate this fact.
3. Cakes are king of the holidays. I, for one, would love to celebrate my birthday with a pie.
4. Cakes are crumbly and require cleanup, especially if kids are involved.
5. Cakes are extraverted. This is a sometimes problem for introverts.
6. Cakes are party-centered. Therefore there is nothing sadder than someone sitting alone in a kitchen and eating cake.

7. There's a funny Seinfeld episode about a chocolate bobka. (sp?) The episode is good, the bad thing is that I've never had a chocolate bobka. Or a plain bobka. In fact, I don't know that I've ever bobkaed at all.

8. My mind contains a memory of some man talking about cake--except he pronounces it "keck." The line is something like, "You want keck?" The bad thing is that I can't remember who says it or in what context. It's just a loose, floating memory that won't be anchored until I hear it again.
9. Some people can create beautiful cakes like the one in the photograph. I can't.

And there you have it. My feelings about cake. Would you like to add your feelings to either list?

~~Angie