{"id":2233,"date":"2020-06-25T23:45:25","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T06:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shescribe.com\/?p=2233"},"modified":"2020-06-30T10:17:22","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T17:17:22","slug":"what-making-my-mothers-birthday-cake-taught-me-about-equal-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shirscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/25\/what-making-my-mothers-birthday-cake-taught-me-about-equal-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"What Making My Mother\u2019s Birthday Cake Taught Me About Equal Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The red velvet cake with fresh strawberries, homemade strawberry sauce and homemade cream cheese frosting I made for my mother’s birthday. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the last couple of years or so, I\u2019ve been seeing a lot about Black Women\u2019s Equal Pay Day<\/a>. It gets a hashtag on twitter on the day. It\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Or at least that\u2019s my understanding. Look it up to make sure. As you know \u2013 or if you don\u2019t know, now you know — I be writin\u2019 these here \u00a0posts at the last minute so I ain\u2019t got no time to look it up right now. (update: I added a link)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhoo, I\u2019m all for equal pay, especially as a black woman who\u2019s been underpaid a time or many in her day. I\u2019ll be the first one to be like, \u201cpay me what I\u2019m worth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I\u2019m also cheap as fuck<\/a>, so when I\u2019m the one dishing out the cash, I\u2019m trying to give you the least amount possible.\u00a0 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\u2019s like. Plus, I actually think it\u2019s cheaper to pay people well in the long run. I think it decreases turnover, and inspires people to be more invested in their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was a bit of a tangent. Bring it back now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019m talking $45 for a six-inch, three-layer cake. Isn\u2019t that a lot?\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t want to spend that much on a cake so small. After all, as I heard said before, \u201cHow much does flour and sugar really cost?\u201d \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, after mulling over it for a bit, I went with the $45 cake. The bakery lady described it so prettily \u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s only redeeming quality was that it was beautiful (it had roses on top as the daisies didn\u2019t 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\u2026but I got my money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So as you may have suspected, my cake search, this time, came with a little trepidation given the horrors of my last experience.\u00a0 I called a different bakery where we\u2019ve gotten cakes before \u2013 in other words, a tried and true spot.\u00a0 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 \u2013 6 inches again, \u00a0this 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That quote completely discouraged me from calling anyone else. Immediately, I resigned to make the cake myself. Right about now you may be saying, \u201cwhat does this have to do with equal pay?\u201d Wait a minute, stay with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t completely from scratch. I went the Sandra Lee route and did \u00a0it semi-homemade<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But wait, there\u2019s more. Since we’re not the homemade baking type family, I didn\u2019t have anything like a mixer \u2013 handheld or that fancy and expensive Kitchen Aid one you always see \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, it didn\u2019t come out half bad \u2013 I mean I won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u00a0That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of a sudden, that $35 didn\u2019t 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\u2019s actually  the time and effort that I put into making my mother\u2019s cake that made me have a greater appreciation for what these bakers do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just flour and sugar we\u2019re paying for. We\u2019re paying for their time and effort, their expertise, the trial and error they\u2019ve 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.\u00a0 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\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that I think about it, I\u2019m not sure how I\u2019m tying this to equal pay, other than I guess to say, pay people what their worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what I used if you want to try your hand at my cake:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cake Recipe<\/h4>\n\n\n\n