Cake

Chocolate Mud Cake
Carrot Walnut Cake

Yesterday was a cake day. No, it was anybody's birthday, anniversary, wedding, funeral, holiday or any other excuse-to-eat-cake day. It was just a day for talking about cake and eating it. My brother is thinking on getting married, so, of course cake came up. You see, neither of them have a sweet tooth. Sampling cake in a hundred different flavors is the last thing on earth you'd find either of them doing. So, the thought of being required to by some sort of matrimonial expectation makes them both cringe.

I did them both a favor and yanked them off the hook by saying, "Don't serve cake then. Serve fruit and dress it up with a chocolate fountain." I find it interesting that some of us work so hard to fit into the expectations of others and some of us work so hard not to. Weddings can be a tough business. There are whole series of television shows based on choosing the dress for crying out loud! When you look at the heart of the American wedding (in all of its variety), you find people who have been dreaming up the "perfect day" for a long time suddenly pulled to and fro by every declared "must" and "should" spoken by parents, relatives, and caterers. Remember, your wedding and reception are to allow the people in your life to witness an event to remember. It's just to let them know that you want to be married to this one person and nobody had to drug you to get you there!

Cake choices, or a lack thereof, can be very symbolic (or not at all). My husband and I chose a cake in three flavors. Vanilla for those guests with sensitive taste buds, Double Chocolate Chip for my husband, and Carrot Walnut for me. In many ways, our cake represented ourselves and our future. Neither of us is identical to the other. We just don't look at many things the same way. We have our own individual flavors and neither of us has wasted any time attempting to make the other fit ourselves. I'm a lark - he's an owl. I devour books - he devours video games. But we both love to laugh. I guess that's our common cream cheese frosting. We're also both aware of others and do what we can to help where we can. We are always aware of our children and talk about their needs and our responses as parents regularly so we can allow them to each grow into their own flavor of human being.

Last night, my husband brought home two slices of cake from the bakery -- Chocolate Fudge for himself and Carrot Walnut for me. I like that about us.