My family of origin had some family traditions, but they were few.
One that has made it to the present is the Italian Rum Cake birthday cake tradition. My brother’s birthday and mine are about a month apart. We both love Italian Rum Cakes. My family? His family? Um, not so much.
Okay, they hate it.
As much as I love this cake, it is not fun to have a birthday cake on my birthday that no one but me will eat.
Also, it’s damn hard to find this cake in Maine. Actually, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to find this cake in Maine.
So here’s what my brother and I do now:
- We call La Cascia’s Bakery and order the Italian Rum Cake with Strawberries (included) and Peaches (cost extra-pay it! it’s worth it!). You get to choose between whipped cream and buttercream frosting (WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING ROCKS!). You must decide if you want nuts on the outside or not-I can never decide so I order nuts on half of it. 🙂
- One of us picks up the cake and drives to the other’s house (we take turns hosting-this year is my brother’s turn).
- We split the cake. Literally. We each eat half. In our defense, we order the smallest one (serves 8-10 people in real life) they make.
That’s it. Problem solved! We love the cake! Our relatives are not subjected to it! Plus it’s June (my birthday was in May) and I am still eating birthday cake!
I did find a recipe for it (without the strawberries and peaches) on the Mangia Bene Pasta website, but there are something like a thousand steps in this recipe, so it’s pretty certain that I will never make it. Ever. I’d be too tired to eat it after all that.
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 