No one told me how perfect it feels to carry a cake alight with birthday candles to the sound of a family singing Happy Birthday. Or how happy I’d feel shielding the candles and seeing the faces of those I love most dearly through the flickering flame.
It’s so familial and so intimate. I always feel like I’m in the height of a great love story when I’m carrying a birthday cake to my family sitting around the dining table.
But cake used to intimidate me.
I didn’t even make my son’s first birthday cake because it felt too big a task. I once made a flat-as-a-pancake box cake for my Grandpa Walt. And it was actually pretty funny and a story I don’t mind telling, but I never thought cake things were my kind of thing.
That is until last Valentine’s Day when for some reason I found myself buying a heart-shaped cake pan with plans to make a cake for Valentine’s Day. My son is Cake’s #1 Fan so I think that’s what had me getting a heart-shaped pan.
I love Valentine’s Day because of my mom who always made it extremely special for all of us. We would drink Orange Julius from fancy glassware, come to the dinner table with our plate stocked with little gifts, and we’d eat by candlelight. My love for this holiday is solely due to her love and attention to us on this day and it’s something I’ve carried into the lives of my friends and my own small family.
So, last year, baking a heart-shaped cake was part of my little family’s celebration and it was so enjoyed by myself and my family that I just didn’t stop making cakes for the rest of the year.
I scraped the bottom of the bucket decorating that first Valentine’s cake. I created a makeshift “love” sign from Amazon cardboard, a white paint pen, and taped said sign between to two red-striped paper straws. I swirled the icing on the top and when you cut into the cake it was strawberry pink inside.
Well, of course, I couldn’t stop after that. It was such a hit and it was so fun to do. For my daughter’s first birthday I made classic confetti cake from a box ( p.s. – these are all from a box🤫😉) and covered it in icing and bright sprinkles. Her party was such a highlight and the cakes were so bright, so happy, so imperfect, and so totally scrumptuous!
For my son I had even more fun doing it! By this time I had a few successful cakes come out of my kitchen! I stuck with classic confetti cake for my son’s birthday and turned it into a construction site filled to overflowing with sprinkles!
When I was done making this cake, I laughed out loud, because it was so delightful to make and I was so delighted doing it. Cake accompanies the best love stories!
In the fall, I made Harvest Cake which simply meant I used a leftover strawberry box cake from the pantry, covered it with confetti icing, and then decorated it with a harvest of zinnia flowers from the garden.
So, last year I discovered the joy of simply carrying cake to the dining table. My heart felt immersed in the happiness of birthday candles and birthday song and seeing the faces I love so dearly through the candlelight. If no one has ever told you how wonderful that can be, I’m here saying it.
It’s wonderful.💖
(But hurry and blow out those candles, because the wax is dripping!)
Creating beauty and goodness, partaking in the sweetness at my fingertips and offering such sweetness to those I love weaves into our story.
Maybe when my kids are old and grown, they’ll say,
Mom! She marked the seasons and holidays with cake. She put flowers from her garden on cake like that’s what she grew flowers for! She dumped sprinkles into happy birthday scenes and carried cake to the table bursting with joy for her life. Sometimes, she looked as if all her dreams came true. She said all the important ones did. And how she laughed a lot!
I know that I can say now that I’m grown,
Mom! She filled our fancy glasses with Orange Julius. She set the table with gifts and cheer on Valentine’s Day! She lit the candles like Valentine’s Day was made for us kids. She marked the holidays and by her magic, we felt the seasons turn though we lived in the hot, high Mojave desert. And how she loved a party! And made her life into one itself!
The love story goes on. I hope my children can feel it, and I hope one day they pass this love story of Cake and Orange Julius and Valentine’s Day down to their children. They’ll add their own spin to the love story, but the point is it will go on. That’s my prayer and the beat of my mother’s heart.
For now, I’m plotting my family’s Valentine’s Day cake, and I can’t wait to carry it to the dining table. Can’t wait to see their faces and hear their happy squeals. Can’t wait to add to the love story.
Sprinkles is just what it needs, after all.
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Sierra V. Fedorko 
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