Let Me Eat Cake (Mama Pat Clayton's Carrot Cake to be Precise)

It has been a cake walk kind of Sunday morning.   Wanting to bake a few of my “specialty” cakes for the upcoming week for various people, I woke up before the light of day and begin mixing, stirring, greasing, flouring, and baking at 325 for golden buttery delights.   At some point during the baking marathon around six AM(ish) I realized I was hungry.  The coffee was just brewed wafting its deep aromatic rich earthiness throughout the quiet morning house when in the corner what did my little Southern boy eye did spy?   Carrot cake!!!!!!!!!!!!   Not just any carrot cake, but Mama Pat Clayton’s lip smacking your brain to jeezus good carrot cupcakes she had made for her darling grandson’s first birthday party we attended Saturday afternoon.

When Marie Antoinette supposedly or allegedly said that infamous phrase, “Let them eat cake,” I have to say there are several times in life when I think she bends down her pretty powdered head down from heaven (or perhaps up from the belly of hell ?) and whispers in my ear that gorgeous phrase of hers.   Those words that were seen as obscene elitist utterances at the time when her French country citizen’s were starving in poverty; but like any true Southern Queen I’ve taken her phrase to heart and powdered & painted it up to mean that life is just too damn short so let me eat cake!  I'm just saying ya never know when you’re gonna get your pretty powdered coiffed be-wigged head chopped off so ya better just eat cake when ya can and enjoy life.   Besides isn’t cake one of the small yet decadent and sometimes exquisite tastefully sinful little delicious journeys our taste buds take every once in a while.  I mean, most of us don’t eat cake every day…….or at least I don’t, so to me it is a nice little treat and seems almost a sin not to take a moment and savor a sweet little bit of cake. 

Cakes are special to me because not every cake, especially store bought, is cake I want to waste the calories on.   Possibly because my dear Southern Grandmothers and Mother had their own specialty cakes and they were only baked for special occasions.  Strawberry shortcake, German Chocolate cake, and Chocolate cake all made from scratch by my mama are three decadent treats that I only get to have on special occasions when I am home because they are cakes mama makes from scratch and no one else seems to come close.   Any kind of New York cheesecake is like my sweet tooth’s equivalent to pizza.   If my sugar level and waist line could afford it I could eat NY Cheesecake everyday.   Then there is Tootsie’s pound cake which is more than a pound I can tell ya.   Paula Deen would hit me in the face with a turkey to get that pound cake out of my little grubby hands if she knew how much butter was in that sucker.   And then last but not least there is Mama Pat Clayton’s carrot cake, although yesterday she upped the ante making them into cupcakes which translates to just one nice bite for me which further translates into 4 or 5 cupcakes later and possible sugar coma by noon.   She smartly only sent me home with 4 that I “HAVE” to share.  

The jury is still out on whether or not I will “share,” but my first one this morning was the perfect little taste and burst of heaven in my mouth washed down by fresh coffee!   YUM!   What a wonderful way to start a Sunday!   Cheers to Mama Pat Clayton, her out of this world carrot cake and yes, cheers to Marie Antoinette, I get it girrrrl!   Cut my head off but let me eat cake, damn’t!