Let The Cake Speak

"The opposite of War isn't peace- it's creation!"

~ RENT 

Before I left college for the spring 2011 semester, I was involved in an original performance piece called "Let The Body Speak". It was a work of art that I helped to begin, but sadly was unable to be there 'til the end. LTBS was the brain child of my lovely friend Sarah, and made its debut at a liberal arts college in Massachusetts sometime this February. Though I'm not sure what the final piece looked like, the idea was to create a performance created by young women that celebrated the body. There were to be skits and monologues, movement and song, color and creation to be collaborated and dreamed up by the performers. The "cast" consisted of a small group of young women all with ranging personalities, but all having the unsatisfiable hunger for chocolate.

One dreary afternoon,  as the smog rose over campus, I decided it was high time to make a mess. One of my best friends and I decided to bake a cake for our fellow cast mates. Armed with a small kitchen, a box of cheap cake mix, and some food coloring, we set out to create what I have come to call "shrek cakes and glop."  

I'd like to point out that I don't like cake mixes because there isn't enough to do, and when you divvy up the work between two people.... the process is as time consuming as tying your shoes. One person opens the bag and pours the powder into a bowl, the second cracks in the eggs, someone pours in the oil...you get the picture. My mom says that the original cake mixes made back in the 50's or 60's were like Bisquick- you just added some water. Well the housewives began to complain that it didn't feel like real cooking (ironically) so the companies decided to make mixes where a few extra ingredients were needed. I for one, would much rather melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler than rely on a cloud of questionable content, but forward I must go. 

We quickly got to work covering the counters in sticky brown mush, then discovered we only had one cake pan and a six cup muffin tin. We decided to make the cake the "main attraction" with some cakelets on the side so there was enough to satisfy the thespian sweet tooth. Earlier that day we'd gone to the grocery store across the field from our campus, and picked up some decorations. Organic chocolate covered gummy bears and chocolate "rocks" called out to us, and we obliged. 

While it turned from batter to baked good, it was obvious our cake would need some color. After all, a lump of brown stuff covered in more brown frosting would only appeal to the nose and lips...not so much the eyes. Into a bowl went powdered sugar, water, vanilla extract, and drops of green and blue food coloring. The result was a fragrant slime that could only have come out of say, a witch's nose or the intestines of a cow on a bad day. Still, we would not show up to practice without dessert!

While the cake cooled we dabbed the aqua marine "glaze" on our faces and arms making ourselves look like victims from the newest "alien vs predator" movie. As we applied frosting, goo, and candy to the cupcakes and square loaf, we had an idea. Why not let the cake speak? And so using our imagination and chocolate pebbles we converted our swamp like fiasco into a performance of its own, which was enjoyed immensely by creators and cast members alike.