Cake Conspiracy

Jeremy's birthday was Friday, so he spent the three prior days working on a zucotto, a rather elaborate inside-out cake (what amounts to frosting, two different mixtures of mascarpone with other stuff, is on the inside, and the cake -- doused in a liqueur --  is on the outside). Since he obviously couldn't take it to school on his bicycle, Michael and I took a few minutes to take it to the school on the big day.

I had previously heard that homemade goods were against the rules for health reasons; having heard that one of Jeremy's classmates had also brought a birthday zucotto (complete with liqueur), I didn't worry about it too much and said nothing about the rule to Jeremy. When we arrived at the school, I proudly told the secretary and teachers who were hanging around that J had made it himself, and they said nothing about its not being allowed, either.

We dropped it off with the janitor/hall monitor, who said she would take care of taking it in to Jeremy at the break.

Well. Jeremy came back full of giggles at the end of the day. Apparently the teacher who was in charge of class before the break got worried about the health rule. She sent up to the headmaster for a determination, who rapidly said no-can-do on homemade food in class. And that was that.

Or not.

The next teacher came in, and heard the problem. She rapidly said that Jeremy should go to the headmaster to plead his case, and half the class volunteered immediately to go with him...the teacher allowed two other kids to accompany Jeremy to the headmaster's office. Unsurprisingly the headmaster was unavailable to receive the deputation, so they returned dissatisfied.

At that point, common sense and an understanding of previous actions took over. The hall monitor and the teacher agreed that none of the children in the class was ill, and therefore there wouldn't be a problem (logic, anyone?). Amid cheers, they said hastily that everyone could enjoy the zucotto, but they had to be super quiet, not breathe a word of it to anyone, not leave a trace, etc.

After the children (and the teachers and hall monitor!) had consumed 2/3 of a gargantuan cake, the monitor wrapped it carefully to appear as though none had been eaten. Jeremy brought the remainder home for our enjoyment! Yum!

We've heard of no one's getting sick from the cake, with the possible exception of one child...who ate six pieces.

Love,

Alexandra