Birthday Cupcakes

The one consistent symbol I associate with birthdays is frosted cupcakes. Mom would bake a batch that would be transported to elementary school in a foil-lined box to be shared with the entire class on my special day.

Now, several decades later, I don’t have to go to school on my birthday. In fact, I can take the day off if I want to. Adulthood has its perks.

So I devote a full 24-hours to me. It is a starkly-cold and bright winter day, a busy day full of grown-up play. I’ve made out a complete list of my favorite things.

I start with hot coffee and a bite-sized brownie on Wall Street …

I visit historic Federal Hall, where George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States …

A friendly National Park employee named Ed Hooper gives me a thorough history of the site, and even shows me the Bible that Washington used to take the oath of office …

Next is lunch with my friend “Lee Sloan,” the Grande Dame of food and wine – champagne and tagliatelle with braised oxtail ragout at A Voce on Madison and 26th …

We are served Italian cuisine by a French waiter and nearly swoon over walnut honey cake …

Next, is a razor sharp performance of “Speed the Plow”…

And, a little quality time with Andy Warhol’s soup cans and Monet’s water lilies at the Museum of Modern Art…

In the evening, I indulge my “adult palate,” at a talk at the Institute for Culinary Education aptly titled “The Glories of Bordeaux.” The instructor wears a Bordeaux-colored blazer, and opens the class by announcing, “I’m on red wine therapy, and my doctor approves.”

As for the obligatory cupcakes, there is quite a crowd at the posh 6th Avenue location of Magnolia Bakery. I select a “Vanilla-on-Vanilla” and a “Devil’s Food with Chocolate Butter Cream.” The vanilla is tasty, put the Devil’s Food is deeper, richer and more satisfying, perhaps an indication of my maturing tastes.

The cupcake has a Proustian effect, recalling memories of birthdays past – The Revolutionary War lamp, Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap, my one-and-only trip to the top of the Empire State Building, dinner with Nelson and Audrey at Windows on the World, birthday tea in Paris, the mansions of Newport, a walk through a Charlestown plantation, Fraunces Tavern, lunch with John and Ramiza in Prague, snowbound in Little Washington, Virginia, and a chat with a vintage cookbook seller.

I brush away a few deep ebony crumbs. I’ll never outgrow cupcakes. They are perhaps the best way to celebrate another year in the life.

©2009 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved