Birthdays are an important part of life. A time for all to celebrate the day the world was graced with your presence. At Mawson, birthdays are celebrated for two reasons: the first is to have the focus on someone else’s age for a day at least and second, the birthday cake.
The birthday cake is a wondrous thing. It gives the chef a chance to show off their skills, and we all know how they love to do that, plus birthday cake is renowned for being calorie free.
Recently we celebrated a birthday, but the birthday girl, in her infinite wisdom, felt it necessary to celebrate the day of her hatching with a getaway to Rumdoodle hut. This outrageous display of independence forced the chef into a tough position: station tradition demands the masses get their cake but can you celebrate a birthday sans the birthday girl? The chef sidestepped this potentially catastrophic situation by taking the day off and leaving it in the hands of the inept stunt chef.
The stunt chef sided with the masses and made the birthday cake. Unfortunately, the birthday girl’s veganism meant the cake had to be egg, butter, milk and meat free! These dietary restrictions totally hamstrung the poor stunt chef who was left with only sugar and icing sugar as his cake’s ingredients.
After plenty of colourful language and dirtying every pot in the kitchen, the stunt chef prevailed, one double thick, slightly askew, vegan birthday cake. The masses gathered around the cake awaiting their piece. Unfortunately, with no birthday girl, there was no one to cut the cake — time to take the cake on the road.
Four party people grabbed the cake, loaded up the Hägg and headed to Rumdoodle. After an hour trekking up the plateau with the precariously constructed cake, which was still in one piece, the party stopped and transformed the Hägg into the ‘Party Hägg'. After the transformation, the ‘Party Hägg’ continued onward to the hut.
The unsuspecting birthday girl was busy dancing to CCR on the hut deck when the ‘Party Hägg’ burst onto the scene, balloons billowing. In between bouts of hysteria, the birthday girl hugged all the party people, posed with cake as the sparklers were safely lit, then went back to her hysteria.
The party moved into the hut as finally the cake could now be cut by the birthday girl. A cheeky birthday card was given and then the cake was finally cut. Who knew a cake made entire of sugar and icy sugar could taste so good and still be calorie free!
The party raged for a couple of hours before the leftover cake had to be returned to the station for the rest of the station to enjoy.
