A Piece of Cake on Edisto Island

If you went on a strict diet, what food would you miss the most? When Ted and I started on the Noom weight loss app in February, we asked ourselves that question.

Would it be crusty bread? Pasta? Ice cream? All of the above?

After a few weeks of limiting our sweets and carbs, I knew my answer in no uncertain terms: cake. Not just any cake, but yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting.

Where this came from in my memory bank I have no idea. I don’t associate the dessert with any specific happy-occasion memory. I simply knew I craved it. It could be store-bought, a mix, canned frosting. None of those details mattered.

What surprised me most was the intensity of my craving.

Still, I abstained, thinking the dream would pass.

Spring came.

Then summer.

I still wanted that cake.

55 pounds later, I got it for my birthday.

On South Carolina’s Edisto Island over Labor Day weekend with Ted’s family, our great-niece Sarah made the cake for me.

Three layers.

Thick, dark frosting.

She even made it a day before the family’s celebration of its many August birthdays, when the cake would be served. “It’s better when the frosting has time to soak in a little bit,” says Sarah. Like her father, she is a natural chef.

And she is so right.

For me, putting the first bite of the cake in my mouth last night was one of those rare moments in life when the reality actually exceeds the dream. It was heaven. The cake moist and mellow. The icing bold and rich. Satin on the tongue.

When I finished the first slice. Sarah even cut another sliver for me. Yes, I ate two pieces of my requested birthday cake … and it was wonderful.

Thank you, Ted, for sharing my longing with Sarah before we came to Edisto. Thank you, Sarah, for fulfilling my wish so willingly.

At 70, I am a happy man.

And a wiser one.

Having had success with Noom, I know such indulgence is best appreciated on rare occasions. So I might wait a while to have this lovely cake again.

At least until after dinner this evening.