I recently had a birthday. Numbers aren't important. I can remember having birthday cakes when I was a child.
There was a desire to have a cherry cake, like a cherry cupcake but larger. My mother could never figure out what was involved in making that happen.
I was glad to "settle" for chocolate cake with chocolate icing whenever possible. If you knew the old-time Bill Knapp's chocolate cakes, you got to enjoy a treat. Moist and rich. Even after the regional restaurant chain closed down, the cakes were still available for a short time.
There is an appeal to the notion of childhood memories of birthday cake. Unfortunately, there is a wave of deception of products marked as "birthday cake" flavor.
When 3 Musketeers introduced a birthday cake variety, it features "vanilla-flavored nougat and colorful sprinkles covered in rich milk chocolate." We seriously debate the idea of milk chocolate being "rich."
Vanilla cake and sprinkles is an unofficial recipe for birthday cake flavor. Even when I couldn't get cherry cake or chocolate cake, yellow cake was the clear winner.
You could argue that vanilla cake and sprinkles were the go-to when you were a child. That birthday cake flavor is a true throwback to those simpler times.
The American supermarket is filled with products with "flavors" that don't remotely come close to that flavor.
They rely on this "you eat with your eyes" principle and hope the visual and the words "birthday cake" will get past your limited taste buds.
That works for a 1-year-old whose memory of birthday cake is sticking their hands all over the cake without actually tasting any of that cake.
The cake isn't even the target but the fakish, bad vanilla frosting and the visual of the sprinkles that are more about food dye. A good frosting can't hide the taste of a bad cake. Birthday cake flavor is bad frosting hiding the fact that there is no cake.
The argument for birthday cake flavor to replicate childhood memories if your mother (or father) baked your birthday cake, childhood memories usually involve sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup. The birthday cake flavor in a lot of these products have high-fructose corn syrup and/or artificial sweeteners. If those are your memories, life should apologize to you.
Finding joy in loving, losing, and refinding previously lost foods
BalanceofFood.com holidays coverage
Memories and food are a strong emotional bond without the artificial influence of pretend birthday cake. When you celebrate a birthday, you can create new and stronger memories. I buy Girl Scouts Thin Mints cookies and put them in the freezer. I take them out to thaw around my birthday. They aren't like the cakes of my youth, especially that amazing Bill Knapp's chocolate cake.
The Thin Mints cookies are really good and they make my birthdays a bit brighter. Sure they have palm oil; their tastes are authentic and flavorful. Real flavor.
photos credit: me; BillKnapps.com; Trader Joe's
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.