The Birthday cake
Birthday cakes are always a symbol of celebration. A yummy, delightful, editable, complete- with- frosting and candle glowing symbol of a “birth” day.
We all have our favorite kind of cake. And growing up in our house we knew without question what kind of birthday cake to make for my father. Yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting and it had to be cold! In other words, after the cake was baked and frosted it had to be put in the refrigerator to get cold and extra “fudgy” with the frosting.
Now some may be going “e-yew!” cold cake, but what you don’t understand is my father was born in July, in the south! You could not leave out a cake in the south during the time he grew up because if would melt, no AC during those days. In fact the story he would share with us is that on the day his Mama or sister would bake his birthday cake he would sneak into the kitchen and deliberately slam the oven door so the cake would sink in the middle. This meant extra frosting to fill in the “sink hole” the loud intrusion would make upon the cake while baking.
Many a yellow cake with fudge frosting was made over the 79 years of my father’s life, but one in particular is a bitter sweet moment in the timeline. My child who dearly loved her Papa could not make the memorial service. But, instead of being “boo- hoo” that day, he reached back for a special memory, a time of celebration from childhood and specials days; celebration with Papa, birthday celebrations. He chose, that day to make a cake, a special cake, Papa’s favorite cake: Yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting. I find this to be very befitting for who someone passes, yes, it is a sad time for those left to carry on, but it is also a celebration of a life well lived.