Birthday Cake Politics

It recently occurred to me that even in birthday cakes there is politics. At a child’s party it is the most political item there. Firstly its color speaks to the sex of the celebrant that could be considered sexist and therefore very politically incorrect but who’s counting. Then the way its decorated speaks to preferences, skill level (if homemade), age bias – who came up with the brilliant idea of putting candles on it to indicate maturity level?- and dependent on age, pyrotechnic ability.

But the real politics comes when it is time to cut the cake. Initially, the party child chooses a cohort who shares his or her limelight, that child’s status among party goers is immediately elevated. Then there is the obligatory singing happy birthday and blowing out the candles. The real money event is however the cake cutting. Now I’m not certain how it works but where I‘m from some people believe that there is luck to be associated with the person who wins the cake cutting race. However that race is fixed by virtue of the fact that the invited child dare not beat the party child at the race because if that happens, for the rest of the party he/she would be a party outcast.

Then there is the division of the cake or spoils if you will. The party child designates to the party Mom who gets what. The most coveted pieces are the with the name, which the child usually saves for himself; the writing pieces – Happy and Birthday – never were so exalted and the much overlooked aces in the hole, the corner pieces blessed to have two sides of icing for the lucky recipient. When these treasures are dispersed through cronyism, the rest of the general public lucky enough to attend the party line up to have the “what-left”, divided up amongst them. But even this is hierarchical because Mom still has the ability to decide on thickness and size of slices, while making sure to set aside some to be left for those belonging to the party household to enjoy in days to come kind of like an austerity measure.

I’m sure by now the metaphorical significance of birthday cake politics has not escaped the keen observer of the political scene especially in a general election year. How the spoils are divided up is always interesting as well as cake cutting partners, who is invited to the party and what Mom reserves for herself. Oh to have ones cake and eat it too!! Selah.