Ugly Cake

     My cousin makes ugly cakes. I am not being mean, she told me so herself. She and her youngest daughter have toyed with the idea of opening a tea shop and serving sweeties with their teas, but every time they test a cake recipe it turns out ugly. A cake doesn’t have to look good to taste good–hers are delicious–but if it is true that you eat with your eyes first, there could be a problem.

     She came for a visit last month. She hasn’t been to see me in a long while, so I wanted to make our time together memorable. I baked a buttery cream cake one sunny morning and left it to cool on the counter while we packed up some cucumber and strawberry sandwiches and went for a long walk to the river. When we returned, I sliced the cake into two layers and spread lemon curd between them. Something went wrong. When the cake was assembled it looked wonky. My cousin seemed pleased that I had made an ugly cake just for her. It was so yummy we both ate two pieces.

     I’ve been thinking we should collaborate on a project in which the confectionary challenged submit their unsightly but tasty recipes for publication in the Ugly Cake Cookbook. If we market it well, she could use the capital to open her Ugly Cake Tea Room. Stranger things have happened. I can remember when people used to buy Pet Rocks.