Never Learned To Cook

When I was growing up in South Cotabato, the word "cake" meant only either a sponge cake or a chiffon cake, the latter being "better" than the former. It more often than not was a plain cake; if you were lucky you'd get white sugar icing on it, and if you were luckier you'd get decorative icing and a few sugar flowerets on it too. I loved the idea of "cake," but grew to hate those kinds of cakes, and took only the thinnest slice out of politeness when cake was served at parties. When my dad brought me home a butter cake for my birthday, it tasted so different from other cakes then available that I ate more than I usually did. Everybody at my birthday jostled for a taste of that cake. Unfortunately, it seemed no one had ever tasted butter before and everyone, except me, had a case of LBM the next day.

So, mention "cake" to me in my grade school and high school years and I could never muster up any excitement for it. Come college, however, my uncle would bring us a Mix 'N Magic chocolate roll cake from General Santos City whenever he came to visit. That was a special treat, although I guess at present it would just be like those plain chocolate roll cakes at Goldilocks. At that time though, the thick chocolate icing tasted heavenly.

Then, one New Year, my sister's best friend Jazz brought us a couple of slices of a chocolate cake she said her sister-in-law, who worked in a bakery in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, had brought for their family. It was laden with chocolate, and whipped cream, and nuts, and cherries, and I only got a couple of forkfuls. I had never tasted anything so wonderful in my life, and it was gone before you could ask "What kind of cake is that?" Jazz said she didn't know, and that her sister-in-law didn't know the recipe either because her boss was the only one who could make it, and he didn't make it all that often. It was such a special kind of chocolate cake that people came from all over just to buy it, she said.

For three years I craved for another taste of that cake, but Jazz's sister-in-law had stopped working at that bakery and it was too far away for us to go there just on the off chance that the cake was available. Even Mix 'N Magic didn't have that kind of chocolate cake in its display case, each time I looked.

Then, I came to Manila and I got used to eating at Goldilocks and Red Ribbon. I realized that the cake I had been craving for for many years was actually a Black Forest cake. I have tried almost all the kinds of cakes available at these two bakeshops, but I still keep coming back to Black Forest. It's still my favorite. It just tastes better and better every time I eat it! So on my birthday, and on Christmas, which are actually just days apart, I usually buy a Black Forest cake to celebrate them with. For me, it's still the best cake in the world.

Recently, KusinaMaria.com and DavaoFoodie.com came up with their Bake Me A Cake contest, asking what cake we'd like them to bake for us. The choice is obvious: Please, please, bake me a Black Forest cake.




Photo: “Black Forest Cake” by eliza, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved