In the last couple of years or so, I’ve been seeing a lot about Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. It gets a hashtag on twitter on the day. It’s basically the day in the current year that black women have to work through to equal the pay that white men made at the end of the previous year. Or at least that’s my understanding. Look it up to make sure. As you know – or if you don’t know, now you know — I be writin’ these here posts at the last minute so I ain’t got no time to look it up right now. (update: I added a link)
Anyhoo, I’m all for equal pay, especially as a black woman who’s been underpaid a time or many in her day. I’ll be the first one to be like, “pay me what I’m worth.”
However, I’m also cheap as fuck, so when I’m the one dishing out the cash, I’m trying to give you the least amount possible. Of course I only do that with reference to goods and services. If I had employees, I would never short change them since I know what that’s like. Plus, I actually think it’s cheaper to pay people well in the long run. I think it decreases turnover, and inspires people to be more invested in their work.
That was a bit of a tangent. Bring it back now.
When it comes to goods and services, I want to get the most I can for the least I can, and I have no problem shopping around to make that happen.
Such was the case when I was looking to buy a birthday cake for my mother’s birthday which is today. I started checking prices last week with some apprehension because I remembered the last time a bought my mother a birthday cake it costed an arm and a leg. I’m talking $45 for a six-inch, three-layer cake. Isn’t that a lot?
I didn’t want to spend that much on a cake so small. After all, as I heard said before, “How much does flour and sugar really cost?” I got another quote from another bakery, for $25, which was much better than the $45, but for a cake that small, it still seemed like too much.
Finally, after mulling over it for a bit, I went with the $45 cake. The bakery lady described it so prettily – it was going to have a couple gerber daisies on top, plus I really liked their cupcakes, so I figured it’d be worth it.
When I picked up the cake it was indeed pretty, but when I brought it home, oh my goodness, what the fuck was that? The cake was hard as a brick and dry as sand. It’s only redeeming quality was that it was beautiful (it had roses on top as the daisies didn’t come in) — just enough for my mom to get a picture to post on Facebook before I took that shit back for a refund. I had to dispute the charge to get my money…but I got my money.
So as you may have suspected, my cake search, this time, came with a little trepidation given the horrors of my last experience. I called a different bakery where we’ve gotten cakes before – in other words, a tried and true spot. I wanted the same type of cake: a red velvet cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream in the center and cream cheese frosting on the outside – 6 inches again, this time two layers. The bakery came back with a quote of $35. Say what?! Again I was like, how much does flour and sugar cost?
That quote completely discouraged me from calling anyone else. Immediately, I resigned to make the cake myself. Right about now you may be saying, “what does this have to do with equal pay?” Wait a minute, stay with me.
I set out to get all the ingredients I needed and ended up going to three different stores on two different days. I did research on YouTube to see how to make this cake, even though it wasn’t completely from scratch. I went the Sandra Lee route and did it semi-homemade with cake mix from a box. However I did change it up a bit, adding milk instead of water and organic unrefined coconut oil instead of vegetable oil like the box called for. I also made the cream cheese frosting and strawberry sauce from scratch.
But wait, there’s more. Since we’re not the homemade baking type family, I didn’t have anything like a mixer – handheld or that fancy and expensive Kitchen Aid one you always see – on hand. I had to beat that cake batter by hand the old fashion way, and the cream cheese frosting too. Whew, talk about work.
In the end, it didn’t come out half bad – I mean I won’t be putting any bakeries out of business any time soon, or ever for that matter, but it was kinda tasty if I do say so myself.
The only thing is,, it was a lot of work and it got me to thinking. I spent $2.67 on the cake mix, $1.59 on the store brand cream cheese, $3.79 on the store brand butter, $3 on the strawberries, $1 on the disposable pans, $1.79 on the powdered sugar and I already had the other ingredients. That’s a total of $13.84 before tax was applied., to say nothing of the time it took me to make it. You know, if you believe time is money, and I do.
All of a sudden, that $35 didn’t seem so bad. And not just because if I would have forked it over, it would have saved me a lot of time and effort. It’s actually the time and effort that I put into making my mother’s cake that made me have a greater appreciation for what these bakers do.
It’s not just flour and sugar we’re paying for. We’re paying for their time and effort, their expertise, the trial and error they’ve had to go through to get it right. It just made me think about all that goes into the convenience of being able to call someone up, tell them what kind of cake you want and then be able to go and pick it up. While I know most bakeries will shoot up the price of a cake given the type of event you tell them it’s for, like say a wedding, I don’t think I will be complaining much about the prices of cakes from bakeries any time soon…well as long as it’s not too crazy — they deserve it.
Now that I think about it, I’m not sure how I’m tying this to equal pay, other than I guess to say, pay people what their worth.
Here’s what I used if you want to try your hand at my cake:
Cake Recipe
- One box Duncan Hines (or whatever you want) cake mix
- I substituted milk for water and coconut oil for vegetable oil
- Follow directions on the box
Strawberry Sauce
- About 10 oz of fresh strawberries
- Juice of a half a lemon
- Possibly a few drops of water
- 1 cup sugar
- Follow directions here. I didn’t let my sauce cook as long. I liked the taste after 15 minutes. I also didn’t strain the seeds, because they were so small… and I don’t have a strainer.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 8oz block of cream cheese
- 1 cup of powdered sugar ( I only used ¾ cup for less sweetness)
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 pinch of salt (optional)
- Follow directions here
You’ll also need another pint of strawberries to go between the layers and on top.
Or, just go to your local bakery.
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