Guilty Pleasures

A friend of mine asked a while ago if I had any musical guilty pleasures, but the only thing that came to mind was my favorite songs. But that didn’t count because there was no ‘embarrassment’ factor to them. But as time has gone on, a handful have come to mind…

‘Everlasting Love,’ ‘Build Me Up, Buttercup,’ ‘Forever in Blue Jeans,’ ‘Bad Medicine,’ Broadway show tunes, the entire Grease motion picture soundtrack…

These songs I rock out to in the safety of my car whenever they happen to fall on the dial I happen to be listening to at the moment. Rarely do I seek them out, but I turn up the volume whenever I hear them. Day brighteners they are, but if I happen to have company in the vehicle, I generally keep my excitement levels down to a dull roar.

Now, guilty pleasures are a fact of my life. Yes, there’s the usual foodstuff that is bad for me, but tastes of so good. Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs are a prime example. I know I should savor them since they are only available around Easter, but two weeks later… I’m cryin’ over their rapid departure. Can you freeze them? That might help.

But there are also foods that I only delve into every few years. Gooey Butter Cake is a prime example.

For those of you not in the know, Gooey Butter Cake is a St. Louis staple, same as Toasted Ravioli and provolone cheese thin crust pizza, otherwise known as St. Louis-style pizza. The cake consists of two layers – the bottom being yellow cake and the top layer consisting of either egg and cream cheese, or butter and sugar. Powdered or confectioner’s sugar is then dusted across the top.

And how did this delicious confection come about? According to Wikipedia, “The cake was supposedly first made by accident in the 1930s by a St. Louis-area German American baker who was trying to make regular cake batter but reversed the proportions of sugar and flour.” God bless that man.


My Mom always ate is as coffee cake for breakfast, so I have no idea if other people eat it as dessert. Frankly, I think any time of day is a good time for Gooey Butter Cake.

Also, ironically enough, Laurell K Hamilton has become a guilty pleasure. I say ironically because the first book of her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series is titled ‘Guilty Pleasures.’ Now, they are fun… and sexy… and mindless. They also because formulaic and predicable. But while it can be a detraction for some, I find it nice to have the consistency.

The characters are all physically beautiful and, for the most part, internally flawed in some regard. But not on the outside. Save one. Her character Asher, a vampire, has been marred by holy water that was dripped on him a la Chinese water torture. And because he is imperfect, I find him much more interesting than any of the other characters. Like, I skip over paragraphs to get to the parts in the book where he is.

Of course, it’s my Phantom of the Opera complex. Or the Beauty and the Beast complex. Or… Yeah, ran out of steam with that one. But I do like characters in books who are physically unattractive, but who have beautiful personalities. It makes me hope that I would be so open in real life.