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A Valentine Cake

General

Valentine’s Day stopped being a big deal for me after I left the sixth grade. After the sixth grade you became painfully aware of how no one sent you a secret valentine in fifth period and how you didn’t have any flowers to tout around in between classes. But during all of elementary school, when a whole day would be devoted to making mail boxes in which to receive valentine’s from every single one of your classmates (because those were the rules), those were the golden days. Even though we had to give everyone a valentine, whether we wanted to or not, I still took my time the night before addressing my cards to the right people. If one of the pre-printed Garfield cards I had said “Be Mine,” I had to make sure that didn’t go to just anyone. I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea after all. The best cards were the ones that could be given to any one, ones that said things like “You’re swell!” or “Happy Valentine’s!”

This year I only had to worry about giving away one valentine. I decided to surprise Alan with a cake from Margaret’s French Bakery, a divine place that I had visited a year earlier with Denise and Justin during a wedding cake tasting. After the tasting, I thought long and hard about getting married, if only just so I could have a cake by Margaret. Luckily enough for me, Margaret also makes mini 5″ cakes. I thought about how Alan and I would get to eat 2 bites of it each before it was all eaten up, but I figured it would be so tasty, that those 2 bites each would be worth the $20. When she asked what I wanted written on the cake, I thought about having her write something really original like “Will you be mine?” or even “I love you,” but then I thought better of it and had her write “You really WoW me!” I considered asking her to add a picture of a druid next to it, but thought that might get messy on a 5″ cake, so asked her to do a heart instead.

When I went to pick it up and Margaret walked out with a cake that looked like this, I was blown away. It was a lot bigger than I had pictured it, and Alan and I have been enjoying slices for nearly 3 days now. It’s moist and delicate and beautiful. I want to have her make me a different flavored cake every week. The next one on my list to try is the banana flavor.

Last modified: January 10, 2019