Confessions Of A Splenda Stealer

My 26th also included a bar crawl in the Greenwich Village, a Men and Whales rock show at the Trash Bar in Brooklyn, dinner at Diablo Royale in the W. Village, and concluded with bourbon on the rocks, but for this column’s sake, this is a recap of birthday events that happened in the one and only, Hoboken.

It took me a solid hour to finish the top of my Cookie Monster cupcake. Brought home in a box wrapped in that classic red and white string, the cupcakes from Carlo’s Bake Shop were a gluttonous experience.

Though the a pound cake texture broke up the intensity of the rich, vanilla icing piled high to make up the Cookie Monster’s head (complete with a cookie wedge in his mouth), indeed this task was a marathon, and not a race.

The way I see it, when eating something in the shape of a Sesame Street character, why not embrace it head on, and demolish it as I would have when I was the age of the show’s demographic. Fearing a sugar shock, I lobbed off the monster’s eyes and took a recess in order to finish what I started. It was as messy as it sounds. I believe some blue sprinkles are still in the slipcovers of my couch.

At 26 years of age, I ate like a four year old, and it was delightful. With whipped icing and yellow cake in between my fingers and my lips and eyes wide from the sugar, I was a pig in heaven, as I should be on my birthday.

The trip to Carlo’s Bakeshop was the conclusion of a Monday off from work, spent moseying around Hoboken for the big day to celebrate 26 years of me, and of course, my twin. While last year’s birthday consisted of a brunch at The Elysian and cupcakes at Sweet, this year the twin, my mom, and myself switched things up and met at Anthony and David’s Dining Room, a quaint and cozy place tucked into the corner of 10th and Bloomfield. Usually tinted with low lighting and candles at night, this early afternoon it housed a quiet neighborhood charm. When I lived uptown for a year, a few blocks away, I yearned for a meal there, as I snuck peeks at delicious-looking entrees while I walked home from the bus stop with a gut full of peanut butter and jelly and empty pockets. Needless to say, a lunch here was a true treat.

To walk off the meal, there was shopping. A few stops at the boutiques, including People, a new shop near 8th and Washington, resulted in some new accruements to my garment rack, finally culminating at a stop at the Carlo’s Bake Shop. Though the shopping was a treat itself, my sis and I were due for something decadent.

Back at my apartment, mid sugar coma, and with the smell of blown out pink birthday candles still hanging in the air, my face hurt. The entire weekend was full of friends, silly antics, and toasts. I’m pretty sure my face hurt from smiling. Yes, I’m almost positive it was from laughing, and not a toothache from the icing.

It was a good birthday.