The Killer Birthday Cake

by Felicia A. Williams

My daughter decided that she wanted to have a sleep over birthday party. It was a last minute thing so the preparations were done quickly. We decorated downstairs, came up with a theme and invitations went out the week of the party (it really was a last minute thing).

I ordered pizza and picked up a cake and ice cream from the local store.

It wasn’t until after the party was over that I happened to read the ingredients in the cake that I realized that I was killing my daughter and her guests. I almost called each of the parents to have them take their daughters to the local hospital to have their stomachs pumped, but I realized that was overkill.

Here are the first three ingredients as listed on the cake container:

  • Sugar
  • Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil
  • Enriched Wheat Flour (it wouldn’t need enriching if the manufacturers used whole grain flour instead)Killer Cake

YIKES! The total trans fat grams per serving: 3 grams. That’s right, 3 grams of trans fat per serving. The 10” round white cake was supposed to squeeze out 26 servings (according to the nutrition label). That means that each piece of cake should have been cut .38 of an inch thick to get away with consuming only 3 grams of trans fat (ONLY 3 Grams!) per serving.

I probably should have given the girls a plastic bag to eat as it had the same nutritional value as the cake.

Lesson learned, no more last minute parties. It’s detrimental to the health.

Felicia A. WilliamsABOUT THE AUTHOR: Felicia A. Williams is a freelance writer and webmaster of this website, Tidbits & Stuff and No Job for Mom.com. She also blogs about Living Green one choice at a time.

This document originally written: May 26, 2008

A Dose of Health © 2007, 2008
Felicia A. Williams