Monday, August 4, 2008

Let them eat cake!


By Lauren Wood

Cake is the pizza of sweets.

Not only is it popular and easily accessible to anyone with an oven and some flour, its ability to bring people together is unrivaled. The circular nature, while not particular to the cake, naturally calls for congregation and camaraderie, as celebrants of a birthday bask eagerly in the candlelight waiting for their piece. Those who do not like the icing can scrape it off the top, and those who do not like the filling can pick it out, but everyone will eat, and eat plenty as the jubilation continues.

And let them, I say.

Pies are grand, of course, and a classic symbol of Americana. But they are limited. A pie is merely a pastry filled with some sort of fruit or fruit mix. If one does not like the filling, they are doomed. Unless of course there is a cake around. Also, pies have no potential for growth. No pie can be stacked upon another, while cakes can expand toward infinity. And while the circular properties of cake create unity and friendship, when picnic-goers look down and see a sweaty, soggy pie, the only looks received are those of malice, competition, despondency, or possessiveness. Pies are simply too small.

With cake, the possibilities are endless. Not only can you add layer after layer after sweet, sweet layer, but you can decorate your cake however you like. If it is your blog-mate's birthday, you can scribble out "Happy Birthday Caroline!" in scarlet icing, dotting i's with goldfish and adding sugary profiles of Hamilton and Burr. Icing will simply not work on pie. Indeed, it would interfere with the charming little lattice pattern that adorns the most adorable of pies. You can not personalize a pie, or stick candles in it, so as to mark Grandpa Freddy's seventieth.

In short, nothing spells out celebration quite like a cake.

This has been a rather difficult entry for me, since I am having a rather difficult time stretching out the fact that cakes are simply tastier. Suffice it to say, Caroline Wood did not prepare a pie for my birthday last month.

And it was tasty.

P.S. Stay tuned for big changes and shiny new developments from the Woods! Coming soon: an advice segment, arguments without premeditation, and the highly anticipated fiction vs. poetry debate!

1 comment:

Keaton said...

You described cake so deliciously that I'm now craving craving a midnight snack (cake, of course). Mmmm...

And you forgot to mention one of Life's greatest treats - cupcakes! Nobody has ever heard of "cup-pies", huh? Yeah, cake wins.