German chocolate cake from a bakery (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There are very few things in life that can still surprise me. I am an unflappable human being who does not let anything faze me. If a person were to come up and tell me I was on fire, I would be curious but probably not completely astonished. I know that my gasoline cologne is highly flammable and that is a risk I take.
Occasionally, though, something comes up that I can’t figure out how to deal with. When two of my otherwise brilliant coworkers today went off on a tangent about their dislike of cake, I was thoroughly shocked.
I had assumed that everyone in the world liked cake. Suddenly my whole world was turned upside down. Maybe cake wasn’t really as good as I had made it out to be. Maybe I have wasted thousands of calories in my life on cake when there are thousands of other foods that are actually more delicious.
Worried, I headed to the lab to figure out whether cake really was an awful food or if I had been right all along. Nothing helps me decide things like this better than a trusty Pro/Con list:
Pros
It is delicious. While this fact is debatable to people who don’t care for cake, I think the vast majority of people can agree it tastes better than a number of things such as a wheatgrass smoothie or any sort of tofu contraption.
It is general served during some sort of celebration. You never see someone carry a “Happy Graduation” flan into a room.
It is the tallest of desserts. No one ever creates a seven layer pie, though if they did I would be very interested. It is very common to see people stacking cakes on top of other cakes because they know the only thing better than a cake is a mountain of cakes.
Cake is a good food to throw. I would not have thought of this on my own, but my wife pointed it out and I find it hard to disagree. The frosting will stick to all sorts of things and it would make a delightful “Splish” sound as it hit things. While I’m not sure why anyone would ever be throwing cakes, this is a definite plus.
Trying to eat cake without milk is often impossible. That means that cake, while providing no significant nutrients on its own, is an excellent source (by proxy) of calcium and other vitamins.
Cons
It will make you the size of a small house.
Clearly the winner here is cake. The loser is me because that con is pretty large, but as long as I have cake to keep me company, I probably won’t care.
Related Articles
- Cake Doggy Dog (evilcakes.wordpress.com)
- We’re O.I.L. ( officially in love ) with Fashionable CAKE! (tresorsdeluxe.wordpress.com)
- Chocolate Chile Cake (morethancupcakes.wordpress.com)
- Rochelle Adonis Cakes & Confections (daweddings.wordpress.com)
- Rainbow Sprinkle Cup Cake (cutoutandkeep.net)
This is something I completely agree with you on.
There are a few of those things in life. Not too many, but occasionally I find one.
Your wife picked this topic out right?
Nope. It was all me. She wanted me to write a haiku. She loves poorly written Asian poetry.
I never would have guessed. She seems so classy.
If she wasn’t classy, she would like poorly written limericks. Poorly written haikus are the classiest of the poorly written poetry forms.
How can one argue against such well thought out logic?….. I’m off to buy cake….. my will to resist has completely been replaced by your rationale for giving in…… Surrendering happily……Thank you
I’m glad I can help you rationalize cake eating. Now, remember this isn’t an excuse to eat just any cake. You should still be picky about your cakes. If it is a cake as hard as a rock, please ignore it. Most other cakes, though, are fair game.
yummers. and have you seen what they do with cakes on the Food Network. ALMOST makes me wish I liked to bake!! Thankfully there are many others who can do the job for me. yummers.
If you don’t appreciate cakes, Food Network will definitely fix that.
P.S. This comment really tempted me to retitle my post “Cake: Yummers!”
Pound cake, marble. I ate it both for breakfast and beyond. Cake is marvelous. I hear exercise is marvelous too, but I do my best to ignore that ugly rumor…
Exercise is okay, but it’s definitely no cake.
Cake is good for you too especially if it’s chocolate. Chocolate bean = veg
flour = veg, we must eat lots of veggies
I like it. The farther down the food pyramid we can get it, the better.
…at least it’s still small…even if it’s a house… will take my risk then.. gtg and have a slice of cake
You know how they say ignorance is bliss? It is even more blissful if it leads to cake.
Here is a question for you. What about those who like cake but not frosting on their cake? I had never heard of it before, but I have met some people in my recent past that only ate cake if it didn’t have frosting. I want frosting on my cake.
I have a friend at work who is that way. This is a personal preference. It’s a very incorrect preference to have, but it is a preference.
What about a cake-related haiku?
flour, eggs, and butter.
sugar, interesting spices.
bake, eat, be happy.
Cake. Light and fluffy.
So much icing, give me more.
NO! WE’RE OUT OF MILK?!
delicious shortcrust
packed with various berries
fruit is quite healthy
Very nice.
I love cake. I’ve never had any problems with it.
I’m glad you and cake have such a great relationship.
Pingback: The Science in Cake | Freelance Science Writing