happy birthday to me

Since age 12, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with birthdays. It’s complicated.

This year, I was feeling extra sorry for myself about spending my birthday away from those I love.  I toyed with the thought of moving my birthday 6 months later to July 16. This would benefit me by letting me spend it with friends and family, and giving me the summer-time birthday which I had often longed for. However, it would have the downside of not letting me continue my delusion that any birthday I have away from home on my own does not count (ergo, I have missed 2 and am still 30 instead of 32).

Eventually, I decided to embrace the birthday this year and was inspired to celebrate it on Saturday in my own grand fashion. Therefore, I give you:

THE DAY OF CAKE

I caught a morning train to London set on the idea of seeing the British Museum, wandering the shops of Picadilly Circus, and eating only cake for the entire day.

Figure1:

Time: 11:30 AM

Type: Victoria Sponge

Bakery/Cafe: Peyton and Byrne (www.peytonandburne.co.uk)

Location: St. Pancras Train Station

Verdict: I’ll say it – this is a cake made to eat for breakfast. Nice crumbly sponge cake, super rich whipped cream with heavy flecks of vanilla, homestyle strawberry jam and berries. If you had this cake at the peak of summer, when the berries where perfectly juicy and sweet, it would be close to perfection. As was, even with the less-than-ideal berries, this cake and a cup of tea were an awesomely decadent breakfast. Could I eat this cake for breakfast every day? Of course not. But would I take this cake over a diner waffle with eggs and bacon? Absolutely. Though, some bacon on the side wouldn’t be a totally bad idea.

 

Figure2:

Time: 3:15 PM

Type: Red Velvet Cupcake

Bakery/Cafe: Bea’s of Bloomsbury (www.beasofbloomsbury.com)

Location: 44 Theobalds Road, Holborn

Verdict: The UK doesn’t really have good cupcakes (or “fairy cakes”, as they are sometimes called here). Despite the cute name, they are generally heavy, dry, crumbly, and have poor frosting. Bea’s is considered to have some of the best “American style” cupcakes in London, but I still wasn’t expecting much. I was delightfully surprised. The cake was rich and moist, nicely fudgy, and had an excellent balance that wasn’t too sweet. I would have preferred the icing to be a little richer with cream cheese flavour, as it was sort of just a sort of whipped cream. However, considering I was eating only cake for the day, lighter was probably better. This cafe is obviously popular as it was utterly packed, and there was no way I could get a table for one. Consequently, I took my cupcake to go and then wandered around looking for a park bench. After I couldn’t find one for several blocks, I gave up and sat at a bus stop. Despite the odd looks of passersby, I relished eating every crumb. My situation was all the more “disgraceful” as I ate the cupcake…gasp!…with my fingers. So far, as in Brazil, I’ve only seen Brits eat a cupcake with a proper fork. That’s just ridiculous.

 

Figure3:

Time: 4:45 PM

Type: “Curly Wirly” – chocolate with vanilla frosting

Bakery/Cafe: Konditor & Cook (www.konditorandcook.com)

Location: Curzon Cinema, Shaftesbury Avenue

Verdict: This is one of the most hyped cakes in London – the “signature” cake of London’s “king of cakes”, according to TimeOut London. It was OK. The good: although Konditor & Cook has 6 locations and is clearly a chain, it still tasted homemade. The bad: the icing was melting on a fresh-from-the-dishwasher plate and therefore grainy and greasy. It was a fine cake, but it wasn’t mind-blowing. It was the only one I didn’t finish – though that could be because I’d only had my cupcake about an hour before. Still, I had a nice sit-down at the window and ate my cake in peace while watching the bustle of the Picadilly crowd, and I ticked off the final place on my “best of London” cake tour, so it was a satisfying experience.

 

Figure4:

Time: 7:00 PM

Type: Lemon Cake

Bakery/Cafe: Costa Coffee

Location: St. Pancras Train Station

Verdict: It’d been a long day. My train was cancelled and I had 40 minutes to wait for the next one. I was freezing cold and feeling quite hungry, so I thought I would try to stick to my cake-only plan. Costa Coffee is a big chain of cafes, like Starbucks. Their coffee is reasonably good, and I’ve had chocolate cake of theirs before that was quite fantastic. This cake was not bad. It had a nice bit of lemon curd in the middle, but it could have used more. The frosting was over-sweet, but there wasn’t too much of it. Overall, it was a pretty good lemon cake. Best yet, it helped me achieve the whole range of cakes I had wanted to sample: a sponge, a cupcake, something chocolatey, and something lemony. Very satisfactory. And, as you can see, I ate it sitting on the floor of St. Pancras, waiting for my train.

[I must admit that I did not make it through the whole day on cake alone. By the time I was on the train, I had a distinctly unhealthy feeling and was quite light-headed, though still  thoroughly and disturbingly alert. I had a sandwich, drank some more water, and felt much better.]

Figure5:

Time: Sunday, Jan 15 – 2:00 PM

Type: Chocolate with Smarties

Cafe/Bakery: Homemade

Location: Helen & John’s house

Verdict: A colleague who sits behind me in the office invited me over for lunch, which we followed with a walk in the park. She and her husband have three wonderful children, ages 9, 6 and 4, and live in a beautiful old row-house. After some very tasty lasagna, the cake came out – complete with candles and the singing of happy birthday. It wasn’t gourmet, it wasn’t the most amazing cake I’d tasted, it wasn’t ornately decorated…but it was perfect. Which proves, really, that birthday cake is not about the texture of the cake or the fluffiness of the frosting – it’s about the people you get to share it with.

Happy birthday to me.

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