Rainbow cake.

Before I go too far, many of you may not recognize this cake. It’s a Rainbow Cake. It’s a Baltimore thing. Used to be, Silber’s Bakery was the only place to get it – I can vividly remember that bakery. Everything about it. The way they tied the boxes. The chocolate topped cookies.

There are a few places to get Rainbow Cakes now – Gourmet Again, Seven Mile Market. And, if you believe this Chow.com poster, Snickerdoodles in Hampden makes fabulous ribbon cake/rainbow cake filled with either jelly or chocolate. Jelly. The only way to go, if you ask me.

Seriously, don’t bother with the chocolate stripe. Go jelly or go home.

But, wistful as I am for some good rainbow cake, that’s not why I’m writing.

It was simply thinking about that almondy cake and how it breaks apart at the jelly stripes that inspired me.

My life is exactly – EXACTLY – like a rainbow cake.

All together, it has beautiful layers of amazing goodness held together by sweetness and covered with chocolate.

One great package.

But let’s break it down.

(You may not know that the layers easily come apart and that some people eat them layer by layer without even the benefit of a fork. I know, right?)

Every layer is good. But the layers with jelly on both the top and the bottom are BY FAR the best. And it’s true that sometimes there’s a layer that has no jelly at all. It’s not that it sucks. It’s just not as good. And when a layer breaks in half (or when someone cuts the slice too thinly) it’s a bit disappointing.

I hate being disappointed. Don’t you?

I prefer green and pink. The yellow layer always seemed so…. pedestrian.

But some things just aren’t as exciting. It’s just true.

But if you stack up all the colored layers and make sure there’s plenty of jelly and a (relatively) even chocolate outside, it’s a pretty sweet life.

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