Cake!

You show up at a birthday party and there's cake. There's always that awkward moment when you can't decide if you want any or not because you don't know what flavor it's going to be. It has the potential to be completely amazing and satisfy your taste buds, but then it also has the potential to be your least favorite flavor ever. I guess part of it comes with knowing who's birthday it is and what kind of cake he or she likes. Cake can be so mysterious; its insides covered up by a layer of frosting. It really could be anything - chocolate, vanilla, yellow. It could be ice cream cake, fruit cake, or that weird thing that's just a pie tin of whipped cream, which shouldn't exist outside the clown world of throwing them in other people's faces. They're just gross.

Anyway, like I was saying, it has the potential to be fantastic or nasty. Only time will tell. The deciding moment is after everyone has already sang happy birthday, while the birthday boy/girl awkwardly stares at the cake, waiting for his or her family and friends to stop singing to them. It's then that some one first cuts the cake, revealing the inside of the cake, no longer completely hidden by the frosting.

Cake is like the Internet. The Internet has the potential to be really good or really bad. According to some, the Internet is going to solve the worlds problems. It's a new "public sphere" for idea sharing and creative thought and discussions. Because it's accessible to people everywhere, it could potentially store all the world's information and solve illiteracy around the world. Then there are people like Mozorov, who don't see the Internet as such a good thing, especially when it has the potential to backfire and create more problems than it's worth. Receiving a piece of cake that you don't like definitely creates more problems than it's worth. You feel guilty for taking a piece and then not eating it, but you also don't want to pretend like you like it and eat the whole thing. Then you feel even more guilty throwing it away so you decide to just leave it on the table, acting like you forgot it there.

I will leave you with a cake recipe I randomly found and decided to make. I've made it a few times since. I think it's pretty tasty. (It's also better with a layer of crushed Oreo's in the middle.)

4 cups fresh strawberries 
1 - 14oz. can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated) 
1/4 cup lemon juice 
1 - 8oz. Cool Whip (thawed) 
8 Oreo cookies 
1 TBSP butter (melted) 

Line a bread loaf pan with foil. In a large bowl mash 2 cups of the strawberries with a potato masher. Add the Eagle brand milk to the strawberries--stir. Add lemon juice--stir. Add 2 cups of the Cool Whip--stir. Pour the strawberry mixture into the foil lined bread loaf pan. Crush the Oreo cookies finely into a small bowl--add the melted butter--stir. Spread the cookie mixture evenly over the top of the strawberry mixture. Use the back of a spoon to lightly press the Oreo cookie mixture into the strawberry mixture. Cover the top of the loaf pan with foil. Freeze the entire thing overnight. The next day remove it from the freezer, remove the foil from the top, and invert it onto a plate--if any of the foil sticks to it, peel it off. Frost the loaf with the other 2 cups of Cool Whip. Slice the remaining 2 cups of strawberries and arrange them on top of the Cool Whip frosting. Slice like bread to serve.