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(First, I will say that the picture above is a Green Tea Cake. I never had it and I assume it’s yummy. I chose it for the color, which is important to the following story.)
Being Jewish, one of the worst times you can have your birthday is in April. You run the risk of it falling within the days of Passover. Why is this bad? Because one of the big things about Passover is that you can’t eat ‘leavened bread’. This means anything that rises like bread, rolls, pies, pasta, rice (I know certain sects do eat this on Passover, Squirt.), and cakes. So if your birthday falls on this, you have a few options. Go without cake, break the rules, or have a Kosher for Passover cake. Here’s a tale of when my mom took the third option:
Two of my friends came over for fun and cake. Now, I think this was one of the first years my birthday was placed under Passover rules. It had fallen on the holiday before, but I still got pizza and normal cake on those days. Guess I was being shown how to be an adult and this event sure didn’t help.
My mom bought a Kosher for Passover cake, which you can assume wasn’t a big seller even on the holiday. Well, she cut us each a slice and the first thing I notice is that the yellow cake inside the chocolate had green spots. Not fuzzy or gross, but green. So my mom said it was supposed to look like that. After all, it’s not a normal cake, so why would the color be normal? One friend did the smart thing and ate around the green spots. Me and the other friend were less cautious.
This thing tasted like gasoline smells. Seriously. You ever take a bite of something and you just know it’s how a foul stench would taste if you bit the source? That would be this atrocity of a cake. My mom thought I was overreacting since I had been complaining about being denied pizza and a real cake. She took one bite and was off to the store with the remains to get a refund. Also an ice cream cake. Come to think of it, this might be why my family sticks to homemade cakes (my sister the scientist/baker) and ice cream cakes.
Anyway, the green cake story still gets brought up today. It’s burned into my memory and I get nervous whenever I hear ‘Kosher for Passover’. Though, I’ve called the rule that my birthday is a day off from the holiday. Just for that one slice of pizza and a cake I know hasn’t been sitting on the shelf since Moses listened to his GPS to cross the desert.
Legends of Windemere 
Is today your birthday? My birthday is in April too! If it was yesterday, happy belated birthday!
At first I was grossed out by the picture. But then when you mentioned green tea, it started to look good to me. I like a green tea frappuccino.
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Thanks. It was yesterday, but I’ve got a few days of events planned due to friends having varied work schedules. I’m curious about green tea cake now.
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Great birthday story. I think a cake, Kosher or not with green spots in it would be a great sign that something has gone wrong and a gasoline smell, I don’t know of any food that smells that way. 🙂
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It was more of a gasoline taste. The smell was fine. Best way to explain it is that the taste set off a smell memory, which was strange. I’ve had cake with lime flavoring, so I thought this was the same.
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When you said Kosher and showed green cake, my mind went immediately to pickles. Can’t say I would like pickles anymore than gasoline in a cake. Thank goodness for ice cream 🙂
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Ice cream is good, but it doesn’t replace cake. Not to a kid anyway. 😦
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You notice? A lot of stuff tastes like gasoline smells. I think it is a mystery additive.
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Now that you mention it, I do notice that. Maybe because it’s a bad smell that many of us remember from an early age. How many times were we kids sitting in the backseat of the car while our parents gassed up?
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Mine used to eat hot dogs in the car and after a couple of minutes I was afraid a spark would take us all. Oh! You mean at the gas pump.
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Took me a second to figure that one out. I’m slow today.
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A belated birthday Sir. 🙂
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Thank you. 😀
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Ewwwww!! The story was funny though. You always make me laugh when I stop by your blog 🙂
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Good to hear. Though even when I’m not being funny?
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No. I take you seriously, then! 🙂 I enjoy your posts whether they are serious, funny, or in between!!
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Always nice to hear.
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Oh! …cake photo looks good, though!
Ellespeth
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Figured that was better than a picture of a moldy cake.
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I wasn’t going to say anything! Sheesh! =P
They have kosher for Passover pasta and cereal these days. Just grind up the matzah to flour like consistency and good to go =P. Also, I should now assume you want me to attempt a green tea cake?
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I don’t think you were there. As for the cake, not really. Stick to the chocolate kahlua brownies.
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I heard a story of three brothers always fighting over the food in the fridge. One, who eventually became a chemist, got the bright idea of dyeing the milk green so it would be all his. 🙂 Hope your birthday was even better than green cake.
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Very cunning. Wonder how long it took the others to learn that milk doesn’t really turn green. At least I don’t think it does.
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Rather not find out. 🙂
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Ack! Sounds like not nearly as much fun as “green eggs and ham” in grade school.
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Nope. Totally gross.
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