Melissa's Place

Sweet Tradition

July 28th was our first wedding annivesary. So, when we arrived home on July 29th, in keeping with tradition, we took the top tier of our wedding cake out of our freezer. I had been craving this cake for months now and I was really looking forward to the romance of eating wedding cake and reminiscing about our first year of marriage. I was also looking forward to freeing up the freezer space.

So we carefully opened the box and unwrapped the plastic wrap that had been covering the cake. It had preserved beautifully. It was so lovely. I'd forgotten how much artistic talent and skill had gone into its creation.

Then Mark said, "Do we let it thaw first?"

I shrugged, "Seems to me that letting a year-old cake thaw might be asking for trouble. Wouldn't it get soggy?"

He shrugged back at me.

So we decided to cut it frozen and then if it was too cold to eat right away, let it thaw a bit on our plates.

Mark got out the knife. But before he cut into it, I pointed to some sparkly anthers protruding from a few of the top flowers, "Those aren't edible, I don't think. We should take them out."

"Of course they're edible, it's a cake."

"No. I seem to remember Rob saying something about some part not being edible...." The conversation had taken place a year and a day ago. I took out one of the little pieces and poked my finger with it and then poked Mark's finger with it. It was definitely plastic. So we tried to remove all of them. However, they were frozen to the flowers and a few flowers came off with the anthers.

Then we examined the base of the cake. It was covered in a ribbon and held in place by sewing pins. We carefully removed those too.

Then Mark set the knife ontop of the cake and pushed down. He pushed down even harder. It was a very sturdy cake. He got the knife down most of the height of the cake and then it came to rest ontop of the base (where the ribbon had been pinned) and it got stuck. He began to saw vigorously. It just didn't want to cut through. He re-maneuvered the cake and began cutting a second incision. The knife again got stuck at the base. But determined Mark widened his stance, planted his feet firmly on the linoleum and really heaved on the knife. Finally, he was through.

He carefully lifted the piece of cake triumphantly to the plate and we discovered the reason for the resistance in the cake base. It was made of an inch of styrofoam carefully covered in frosting. We had to cut horizontally to remove it from the edible part.

Within a few more minutes, Mark had managed to free a second piece of cake and we sat down at the kitchen table. With a bit of sweat on his upper lip, he managed, "Happy Annivesary."

"Happy Anniversary to you, too." I replied smiling.

Then he paused with his fork hovering in the air...."You go first."

So I ate a bite. And it wasn't all that bad. In fact, it was tasty. Chocolate on the bottom. Vanilla on the top. And the icing between the layers was delicious. I got a little taste of the outer-covering of frosting and it was very dense and kind of chewy.

"Don't eat the outer icing, Mark, you won't like it."

So he ate a forkful of the outer icing. He chewed it like bubble gum and made a increasingly disgusted face until he had to spit it into the garbage.

We sat back in our chairs staring at the mess of half-frozen cake.

"What do we do with it now?" I asked, "I can't see giving it away. Who wants year-old cake? And is it bad luck to throw out your wedding cake?"

Mark shrugged, "Maybe we save it til next annivesray."