Cat Craving Layer Cake Slice Foreshortening Watercolor Illustration
By Charlie

Craving Cake

Written by Charlie O'Shields

For our prompt of “Desserts” today, I was craving a bit of cake. While Philippe and I were out shopping, we saw a rum cake made by a local bakery that we had once at a restaurant and loved. So I insisted we simply must buy it at once! As we were heading toward the cash register to check out, I saw another locally made slice of zucchini cake and snatched it up as well. I was about to grab a third one to try and was thankfully saved from myself by Philippe. I told him that it was actually necessary for inspiration for my prompt today. This, of course, made me get that silent sideways look he always gives me when met with my nebulous logic. And, once home, neither cake, though perfectly delicious, was particularly colorful or visually interesting. So, instead of sketching either of them, I decided to sketch my actual craving itself with a kitty stand-in and a completely imagined cake. The view and this particular cake was from my imagination, but there is a Neapolitan cake like this one that I’ve seen before online and really want to sample. So, my next mission will be to try to get Philippe to make one for me, but in the meantime, it’s always good to dream.

Actually, we only ate the slice of zucchini cake so far and will try the other cake after dinner this evening. In my defense, I haven’t completely lost my mind as the extra slice of cake I grabbed was quite small and we shared it. The first bite was not amazing, and we both looked at each other and made the same face. Then, without saying a word, we each scraped off all of the icing and just ate the cake and it was quite delicious! The icing was just way too sweet and the flavor hid or destroyed all other flavors with it. But, the cake was moist and amazing on its own. This all happened just after lunch and Philippe was about to cut up an apple for us. I reminded him that we had cake and that since it was made with zucchini it was just the fiber we needed. I got the sideways look again, but he really wanted cake as well, so he relented. I have to admit that I do love trying to sneak in a dessert while we’re out shopping. Philippe’s response is always to dissect it and decide that he could make a better one. He doesn’t create his version right away, but the next time I try to grab for that slice, he tells me that he’ll make one!

So, that’s the story of how I manage to get cake from time to time. But, in truth, it’s perfectly rare and that’s precisely why I love it some much. Anything that’s a bit rare is always a bit more intriguing. We’ve watched several episodes of The Great British Bake-Off and I always find myself like this little cat I sketched today. I literally want to try every single thing I see! But, I live a life that’s full of wonderful moderation. This is, in no small part of course, thanks to Philippe’s loving intervention. Left alone, I’d have far less self-control. But, I love this, because I’m constantly reminded that a treat is only a treat when it comes much less often. It’s that exciting bit of life that I get to experience again, but never all of the time. These are the little things in life that I adore. Little fun surprises that can make a day feel like a celebration. And the things I love most are usually truly simple. So ridiculously simple, in fact, that it doesn’t seem like much at all. But, for me, I love seeing the special in any given moment. There’s always something wonderful there when I take a second look. I live for those little moments that can suddenly become important, like those more noticeably urgent moments, when I’m simply craving cake.

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 Cat Craving Layer Cake Slice Foreshortening Watercolor Illustration Sketchbook Detail

Charlie O'Shields

Creator of Doodlewash, founder of World Watercolor Month (July), World Watercolor Group, and host of the Sketching Stuff Podcast. Sharing watercolor illustrations and stories while proudly featuring talented artists from all over the world!

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32 Comments

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32 thoughts on “Craving Cake”

  1. Sounds like the zucchini cake would suffice better as zucchini bread. I love tea breads with a smear of cream cheese on them as it complements most tea bread flavors. But for true cake, I love chocolate with buttercream frosting. YUM! Still, kitty here is eager to try your Neapolitan cake and will probably be disgustingly sick from it, so best to keep her heading toward the catnip.

    Always fun to dream of cake, especially one this pretty.

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  5. Any cake! I love cake. I made both my brother and sister’s wedding cakes. I wish I had photos of them. I made buttercream frosting that tasted amazing. My roses were of the same frosting and worthy of eating. Good luck on your quest to get Philippe to make more cake!

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  6. I have a definite sweet tooth, but for some reason, cake icing is not a fave of mine so I’m certain the zucchini cake was better without it. Isn’t it funny how sweetness can differ? The glycyrrhizin in licorice is considered 30–50 times the sweetness of sugar, but the two are so different in taste.

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  8. Looks yummy!!! Oh, at first I thought this was a unicorn cake which I can say tastes fabulous. but it being a neapolitan ohhhhh I can imagine the chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, ahhhhhhhhhhh sounds like heaven lol!!! And the sweet kitty is so cute!!!!!! 🙂

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  10. So now I am wanting cake, and no one to give me a sideways look. I loved your story and clean forgot about the lovely doodlwash I was so lost in all the talk of cakes So it was only when I was reading the lovely comments I realised I needed to pop back up to the painting and of course now I want a neopolitan cake (well no I am actually craving a Russian Napoleon Cake now. So glad I don’t have ingredients.LOL. Your very pretty pussy cat is only wanting a bit of the cream icing..sweet for the sweet. you are a cruel man Charlie!

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  12. It looks like a valentine’s cake. I want to see that kitty jump up there and get it! Such a sweet sketch…..ha ha ha no pun intended! Whenever I make cake, I often wonder why I don’t do it more often. Then I am reminded that I don’t have much control when it comes to cake after that first piece.

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  14. Well, how nice that you really can have your cake and eat it too! The angle really makes it look bigger and that’s certainly not a bad thing. Cake is the best thing about birthdays nowadays – well, it’s what I get most excited about anyway!

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