The combination of carpets and cake give most hosts the nervous tizzies. The wibble wobble transfer of a poorly engineered wedge of triple layer Red Velvet cake from platter to plate is an anxiety pinpoint for many hosts. With good reason they imagine icing granules ground into pile; blood red cake crumbs kicked into touch by herds of feet, or worse, a whole slab toppling uncaught by flailing hands. So it would be a good thing if someone designed a foolproof cake slice server, right?
Like a silver Cinderella slipper without a heel, this cake server imprisons a single slice in a metal wall. Failure is mitigated, error eliminated and serendipity – the sure sign of a life lived out loud – is banished.
The server may be a stain and error eliminator but it is also a story killer. “Failures” create treasured family and friend anecdotes – the stories we roll out time and again to share at get-togethers. The wedding cake collapse; when the Border Collie dragged a baked ham to the floor, or yes, when a Red Velvet cake slice belly flopped onto the carpet. Mishaps and failure make our lives a richly handwoven carpet of successes and failures, cakes and crumbs. Foolproof too much and we risk manufacturing our lives into a clean but soulless machine made carpet. So during this season of joy and for all the years to come, have your cake, eat it too, and enjoy. DJ
