Let Them Eat Cake
A new year's resolution to bake birthday cakes for my friends, a little history about Marie Antoinette's infamous quote about cake, modeling at 56, and retiring early. It's been a busy month!
Let Them Eat Cake!
Marie Antoinette, upon hearing the peasants in France were starving, is quoted as quipping, “Let them eat cake!”
Over the years there has been much debate about this quote. Some people say she was clueless, that she honestly thought that cake was cheaper than bread and figured she was solving the problem.
Folklorists say it is a universal, urban legend, that there are other stories of a noble people saying the same thing in other times and cultures
And then there’s those who say it was never said, maybe even accusing the French revolutionaries of propaganda, of spreading fake news.[1]
A Year of Cake
Last year, for my birthday, a friend asked me if she could bake me a birthday cake. We were having a dinner party and that’s what she wanted to bring. I was immensely touched. While my husband does try to get me a birthday cake, he’s not a baker and usually gets a cake from the local bakery. He often forgets my favorite cake & frosting flavors. So, when my friend offered to spend an hour or two of her valuable time baking me a cake, I felt SEEN.
All this led to 2026 becoming my year of cake baking. I vowed to make my friends feel like I did last November. I am baking birthday cakes for all of them. A few birthdays have come and gone, and I’ve already baked two cakes.
The Let Them Eat Cake Project has been interesting so far. I’ve had mixed responses when I offer to bake for my friends. The first person I made a cake for this year was thrilled. The second friend I offered a cake refused due to dieting. Another was just lukewarm about it-I think she would have been just as happy to have store bought cake. I’m realizing that you can learn a lot about your friends through cake. Their reactions to an offer of homemade birthday cake are a portal into their very self. I’m hearing their stories about cakes from their past and getting a sense of their views about themselves and their worth. Even their flavor choices and preferences about frosting say volumes. (I mostly eat cake for the frosting. Apparently, people exist who don’t like frosting?)
As I ask each woman for their favorite cake and icing choices, I note it in their contact info in my phone app. I feel this important information to know about someone. Isn’t it lovely to know there is someone out there in the world who knows what your favorite flavor of cake is? Doesn’t the thought of that make you, ever so slightly, feel less alone? I may not bake them a cake every year, but knowing their cake preference feels intimate. It’s not something everyone typically knows about you.[2]
I’ve also discovered everyone has a story about cake, birthday and otherwise. When I started thinking about this project, I wrote ideas for future essays-it was incredibly generative. When I bring up The Let Them Eat Cake Project to friends, they tell me stories about past birthdays and cakes. Who knew cake was the holy grail of storytelling? Maybe I’ll write a book about it. Maybe I won’t.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/story/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake
[2] Remember when I said asking someone about their collections was a good ice breaker at parties? So is asking people what their favorite of cake is.
Book Recommendations for Cake Lovers
I’m a huge fan of Maira Kalman’s art and writing. She is so quirky and creative. I love that she embraces her obsessions and lets them fuel her work.
In her book, Cake, you’ll find her usual illustrations of cakes and people eating cakes, read her essayettes about eating and baking cakes, and a few recipes. Honestly, the recipes aren’t really my favorite part of this book. When I’m reading Kalman, I’m in it for the illustrations and her writing.
I highly recommend that when you read this book, you have a large slice of cake, a cup of tea, and curl up into a chair. Flip through the illustrations first. Then go back and read the essays. I promise you’ll feel better and ready for the rest of the day if you do.
Ghosts of Cakes Past
I made this cake for my daughter’s 6th birthday (she’s almost 21 now). I had just taken a Wilton Cake Decorating class and my cake decorating skills were strong. We still talk about that cake and how it great it turned out.
Now, tell me your cake stories. What’s your favorite cake flavor? Are you a frosting person? Or do you scrape it off? I suppose I can still be your friend if you hate frosting, but it’s always going to divide us a little.
At the check-out desk…
You may have noticed I haven’t been writing much on Substack lately. My husband retired at the end of January and it is thrown me into a bit of existential crisis of what I’m going to do in this era of our life. I will likely never retire from writing, but I am ready to slow down and live life on less of deadline.
So here’s what’s changing…
Paid subscribers got an email and refund for the unused portion of their subscriptions last month. Let me know if you had any problems.
I am still planning to write here, but sporadically, probably 1-2x a month.
I am going to move more of my bookish essays to a new column I write for ModernPrairie.com. There’s two up there now, one about reading children’s literature as an adult and one recommending novels that take place in Scotland (for my Outlander friends). We’re reading Smoke on the Wind by Kelli Estes this month and the author is joining us. You can register here.
I am going to focus more of my writing time towards submitting to literary journals and will let you know if I get published.
Gossip about my life…
I’m a model now. Kidding, but maybe not. Modern Prairie is featuring more real women to model their clothes and I’m on their website. Honestly, when I was a teenager, I vainly wanted to model. If only someone would discover me in a mall, I thought. Then I would quickly ricochet to self-talk that involved being “too fat and ugly” to model. I wasn’t too fat then, but I am fat now and yet here I am modeling clothes.
I’m not going to lie. It was very difficult to put myself out there. But you know, I can’t keep complaining about the lack of body positivity in the world and feeling invisible as an older woman, and then not want to show-up in the world.
So that’s it for now. Tell me your personal gossip in the comments.
I loved your cake stories, Laura! And you look great in the photo.
Beautiful picture of you my friend. Miss seeing your lovely smile every day. I love baking cakes and embellishing them with store bought decorations and/or candy. I mostly use store bought frosting, but take it out of the container and whip it to make it seem lighter. Love & hugs to you and your family xxxooo