As we live in a time with so many challenges, I muse joyfully on a solution for almost all of them: Cake. I muse joyfully on the cake I shared last week with colleagues, a carrot cake from Potter’s House Bakery and Cafe in Rochester that shattered the angst of Covid, of politics, of struggles with one bite.
Oh, it was a lovely confection covered in coconut and filled with cinnamon and walnuts and a glorious thick coating of cream cheese frosting. I’d walked to Potter’s during my lunch break to get a salad. A Cobb salad. As I’m hoping to be svelte by 2022, it seemed a good idea to combine a walk with greens.
But then, as I waited to pay, I came eye to eye with the Carrot Cake, the cake so beautiful, so gloriously displayed, I bought it. And, dear musers, there was no occasion, no celebration, no fanfare. It was simply a rainy Thursday in early December: a delicious and perfect day to cake.
To cake, by the way, is a verb a student of mine used years ago to describe how she was going to celebrate her birthday. “I am going to cake,” she announced and I’ve never forgotten that beautiful verb, that delightful student.
So, I walked back to work and unpacked the glorious cake, took out plates and forks and shared this delicacy with colleagues. We announced things to celebrate: two Emilys I work with are newly engaged, we, as teachers, are making it through this pandemic, we are alive, we can taste, we can smell, we can eat.
And, as for me, it’s always glorious to cake, particularly on a rainy Thursday in December during a pandemic. It’s always glorious to celebrate something, anything, everything.
I muse you’ll cake soon. Need a reason? Oh, no need dear musers, no need. Just cake and celebrate you.
Susan Dromey Heeter is a writer from Dover who recently let her hair go au natural white. Writing has been her passion since her English majoring days at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Dromey Heeter has lived in The Netherlands, Alaska and currently basks in all things New England, including the frigid winters. An avid swimmer, Dromey Heeter’s great passion is to bring back body surfing as most children have no idea how to ride waves without ridiculous boogie boards.