My Life in Cupcakes
By Jenna Dagenhart
I taught cooking classes at the University of Virginia, and here I am teaching my sorority sisters.
Cupcakes carry weight in my life. I could not care less about the calories or the taste, yet these dainty pastries have weaved their way into my life timeline through a series of lessons and memories:
Age 6: I won my first blue ribbon at a swim meet. Dad took me to the local bakery for “just one treat,” and I ordered the first of what would become many celebratory green alligator-shaped cupcakes. My mom, a nurse who kept a tight watch on our sugar consumption, likely only knows about a fraction of these father-daughter stops, which evolved into a one treat for every blue ribbon tradition.
Scene: A grinning, chicken-legged girl, drenched in chlorine and leaving a trail of water droplets on the tiled floor.
Lesson(s) Learned: 1. Hard work pays off. 2. Father-daughter time is sacred. 3. Embrace your competitive spirit (and your sweet tooth).
***
Age 11: I discovered the joy of self-deprecating humor.
Scene: A Parkside Middle School Dance Team end-of-the-year banquet. Upon arrival, I ate several cupcakes with blue-tinted frosting—a decision which stuck with me the rest of the night, staining my teeth, braces, lips and tongue. At first I felt embarrassed because most of the popular girls were there. Then I just cracked jokes about the blue stains, and became more popular in the process.
Lesson(s) Learned: 1. Don’t take yourself too seriously in life. 2. Embrace the opportunity to laugh with others at yourself.
***
Age 15: My high school boyfriend came over for his first dinner with my family. He loved lemon, and I wanted to impress him with my first batch of lemon/cream cheese cupcakes. After starting a fire in home-ec the year before, I thought I had graduated from setting off fire alarms. I hadn’t.
Scene: Two scents floated through the house: the delicious meal prepared by my mom and the cupcakes I burned. (Instead of checking the oven, I was upstairs primping, picking out my outfit fifteen times, and inventing conversation starters in the mirror.)
Lesson(s) Learned: 1. Don’t worry too much about how you look. 2. Pay attention, whether it’s to the cupcake timer or the people around you.
***
Age 17: I had my first car accident, which I blamed on . the baked goods in the back seat.
Scene: My car was full of 150 mini cupcakes decorated to make collages of a Spanish flag and a Mexican flag. I had stayed up all night making them because I was the president of the Spanish Honor Society and we were having our international festival.
Lesson learned: Sometimes when you try to do too much too quickly, you only slow yourself down.
***
Age 20: My infatuation with the University of Virginia grew after spending the summer welcoming new students as an orientation leader.
Scene: A diverse group of fifty-two energetic orientation leaders eating Funfetti cupcakes off of a spiral cupcake tree my mom gave me for Christmas.
Lesson learned: It’s not how the cupcakes taste, it’s who you enjoy them with.
***
Age 21: After catching the journalism bug, “Intern Jenna” brought cupcakes to the CBS “Evening News” several Fridays. I made a special funfetti arrangement with CBS carefully spelled out in the icing.
Scene: An inspired intern sad to be leaving the Washington, D.C. bureau of new mentors and friends.
Lesson learned: Don’t be afraid to be you in a new environment. Always give back the generosity and joy that others have shared.
***
Age 22, 11 months, and 30 days: The moment I realized I was making lifelong friends in grad school…
Scene: Two months into school, I had not told anyone that it was my birthday. I had class from 9 a.m. – 9 p. m., and I still felt slightly intimidated by my accomplished classmates in the big city, but one of my classmates had secretly arranged for our class to eat cupcakes with 23 candles.
Lesson(s) learned: 1. Never underestimate the impact that a kind gesture will have on someone. 2. It’s not how long you’ve known someone, it’s how deeply you know them.
***
Age 23: First time celebrating Joseph Pulitzer’s birthday.
Scene: With less than two months until graduation, exhausted students fill the lobby of Pulitzer Hall. Many have interviews and meetings to run off to, but for thirty minutes they stop to savor a cupcake and glass of champagne.
Lesson learned: Don’t forget to stop and celebrate. Budget for breaks and let them refuel you. Graduation and Bloomberg News, here I come!
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