Groom's Cake

Today Amy and I attended the wedding of our friends Mike and Laura. Several other friends and people we often see at parties were in the wedding party, making for a joyous occasion, however, the wedding was in a Catholic church leading to much confusion on when to sit, stand, kneel, repeat after the priest, shake hands etc. Obviously we were not alone and were somewhat baffled when the wedding ceremony suddenly drew to a close without the couple having said their vows. It turns out that the priest skipped over this step in what seems like the 64-step process to become married as a Catholic and after the guests had left the church the couple was quickly ushered back in to say their vows before heading to the reception. The reception was fun, but things really didn't get rolling until they broke out the boxed wine.

If there is one hing I have come to appreciate about weddings in the United States, particularly those hear in the South, it is the Groom's Cake. At home, weddings normally featured a single white wedding cake with the iconic tiers and white decorations. Some of these are purely for show and are not even eaten, and those that are often leave this appreciater of fine chocolate somewhat unfulfilled by their overwhelming vanilla pureness. Americans, being the enterprising nation they are, have adopted the custom of including the Groom's Cake, a dark counterpoint to the typical wedding cake, covered with rich chocolate frosting and fudgey goodness. No wedding should be without one. Someday one of my relatives will have the pleasure of flying a suitable cake in to my wedding from Jeanne's Bakery in Winnipeg. It would feel wrong not to have one, as not only are they are just that good, they've been the official cake of every birthday, graduation and anniversary that I can remember.

I am not the only one who shares this sentiment. One fine day at the U of M, my Civ Eng friend Val showed up with a piece of Jeanne's cake packed in his lunch (and the fact that right away it can be identified as Jeanne's cake is testament to it's legendary status). Immediately a new connection was made and we entered into a discussion about the cakes and the best types. Our friends and classmates JR (who hated being called that but it seemed cooler than Jeremy) and Cooze (who preferred that name to Jason) were listening to our conversation and one of them interjected, "The cakes they have at Costco are pretty good..." The looks that val and I shot him before we started laughing like crazy and belittling him with insults. There is no possible way a Costco cake could compare to the fine confectuions of Jeanne's. Accept no substitutes.