Cake as Poiesis
Celebrating 50 years at Frost Farm with three tiers of poetry inspired baking. Exploring the Greek and Latin roots for what I am: the amateur poet.
"A party without cake is just a meeting." - Julia Child
Today, August 25, is my actual 50th birthday!
Of course, I confused many people by celebrating it early a week early in New Hampshire, but I have a family full of introverts and if I wanted something that resembled anything like a party I needed to figure something out for myself. So last year I warned Bob Crawford, the organizer of the Frost Farm Conference, that I was turning 50 in 2024, and I was going to be bring a cake to the event celebrate.
If Julia Child said that “a party without a cake is just a meeting” I suppose a conference with a cake becomes a party, right?
However, I had to consider several things:
The cake must serve at least 45 people.
The cake must be gluten-free since some attendees had dietary restrictions. (I also made cupcakes that were dairy-free and gluten-free.)
The cake must freeze in such a way that would still maintain structural integrity when it thawed. (This was difficult, resulting in the bottom layer being completely recreated. My family had to eat the unsatisfactorily cracked cake.)
The design must be beautiful, but not so complicated that it doesn’t travel well. It had to survive in the back of a minivan that would also have luggage for two people. (I was traveling from MA with one of my MFA schoolmates.)
I made rough sketches in the blue notebook I write in so I don’t die…
There were several iterations and kept sketching for inspiration in margins and random blank spaces—sometimes sideways…
As you see from the notes, I simplified the design.
The bottom layer is inspired by Frost’s “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” — a chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting and dusted with powdered sugar.
The middle layer was designed to resemble a tree trunk in “Birches” — confetti cake with anise frosting to evoke Italian anisette cookies.
The top layer is the well from “For Once, Then Something” — chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and marbled marshmallow fondant.
This is how it all came together. Considering everything I had going on that weekend, this wasn’t too bad at all. I set dowels to allow for some space between layers in order to be able to separate them easier for cutting.
The stress was not over until the layers were assembled and on the board. One false move and one tier could topple over or be offset.
You know who really liked the cake? Rhina Espaillat!
In the days preceding the event I could have been writing and revising my poetry instead of all of this, but the satisfaction I feel when baking is not unlike the gratification I experience after drafting a good poem. It requires a desire to make something beautiful and focusing one’s craft towards what was envisioned. Derived from the ancient Greek term meaning "to make," poiesis is also where we get the word poetry — and all arts are an act of poiesis, including the culinary arts.
Of course, I’m an amateur — in baking and in poetry. The word amateur comes from the Latin amare which means “to love” — and so in calling myself an amateur poet I am really one who makes art simply for the love of doing so. That sounds like a fairly accurate definition of who I’ve been over the past year. (I’ve certainly not been writing poetry for the money. 🤣)
I heard the cake was a big hit. There are a few attendees who missed it, and I am strongly considering making it again next year. If you want a piece you may want to register early for Frost Farm in 2025. Be aware that you will also be served instruction on metrical versification which, I dare say, will be more nourishing.
Could a good cake entice you into learning prosody for a weekend?
Do poets make better bakers, or do bakers make better poets?
Are you one who makes art simply for the love of doing so?
Have I earned the nickname The Oven Bird?
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday! That cake looks awesome!