Everyone wants a piece of the cake, and some want to
pick the raisins out of the cake, but the question is: at what time?
Hey everyone, Dana here!
In this video I said this: You might be turning into a German if....the middle of the
afternoon has started to seem like a perfectly good time for a coffee and cake break - Kaffee und Kuchen.
And my dear Scholli, you know what? Without question, I have finally climbed to the next
level of being German. After so many years in Germany, I had already become
pretty German, I must say. But now I'm really on
another level. Because for me the middle of the afternoon is now not only
a perfectly good time for coffee and cake, but rather
I actually prefer it. Yes, that's right. Yes, that's right. It's true folks. It is true.
By the way, I did also make an English-language version of this
video. Link to the English version down in the description box below.
When I lived in the US, when I thought of dessert,
I thought of something you usually ate in the evening after
dinner. So "after the table", namely the "table" that was in the evening.
Sometimes there were exceptions. Birthdays, for example. Birthday cake is
a must at birthday parties in the US. So if you have your birthday party in the afternoon,
then there will be cake in the afternoon too, because there is simply no birthday party without cake.
That's just how it is. Sorry. I can't do anything about it. And, anyway, why would I want to change that? I love birthday cakes!
But even then we ate cake in the afternoon because of the birthday and
not because of the afternoon. And usually, from my birthday party experiences in the USA,
we still ate the cake towards the end of the party, after we had already
eaten whatever else there was to eat. So a couple years as a kid
I had pizza at my birthday party and I never remember eating the cake before the
pizza. No no no no no. No. On the birthday party timeline,
the cake was the last thing we ate. Right after Happy Birthday was sung
and the birthday candles were blown out. And if you had a birthday party in the evening, there was
cake in the evening too. So again after the meal, if there was something else to eat.
Here in Germany, that is not the case. Cake itself isn't even a must-have at
the birthday parties here. Which was actually a bit of a struggle for me.
In the US I was conditioned that a birthday party means cake.
Birthday party, birthday cake, birthday party, birthday cake, birthday party, birthday cake.
The two things just went together. That's just how it was.
Which meant that when I moved to Germany there were some birthday parties that
I was invited to, where I sat there and waited
and waited and waited for the cake. And I was like that, yeah sorry but where
is the cake? After a while I was like, cake? It's a birthday party
so there has to be a cake, right? Right? No, there was often no cake! Fiddlesticks!
Another cake difference, and there were actually many,
but another cake difference that I had to get used to at first
was that when cake in general is eaten in Germany,
it usually happens in the middle of the day. And in Germany, birthday parties and
cake do not go together as in the US, but rather cake and coffee, or rather coffee and cake.
Question: on a scale from one to ten, how strange does it sound to you when
I say cake and coffee instead of coffee and cake? Let me know in the comments.
So yeah, in Germany coffee and cake is usually in the afternoon and
apart from birthday parties in the US, I was just not used to
having cake in the middle of the day. My body and my brain
were conditioned that when there was dessert it was usually in the evening.
Cake is delicious though, so I didn't really need too much time
to get used to enjoying cake in the afternoon instead of in the evening. But!
During Stefan's birthday this year, I noticed that I had finally made
the leap to go one step further than just being used to it.
It was the day after Stefan's birthday and there was still a little cake in the
fridge. A little cake that I'd been looking forward to since I
woke up. But I was not only looking forward to having
the cake at some point, but especially in the afternoon. Together with my coffee.
At 2, 3 p.m. when Stefan still didn't say anything about the cake leftovers, I said,
as inconspicuously as possible, like "So Stefan...your cake is still
in the fridge..." - and then grinning like a honey-cake-horse - "shall we eat it now?!"
To which he replied, to my shock,
that he actually wanted to have the cake after dinner!
What?! What?! What?!
It was then that I noticed just how much I had actually been looking forward to
eating the cake especially in the afternoon instead of in the evening. So actually it wasn't just
that I was looking forward to having the cake in the afternoon, but I really preferred
to eat the cake in the afternoon rather than in the evening. Really preferred it.
Stefan, however, seemed to have gone the other way. Somehow. How did that happen?
And yeah, it was Stefan's birthday cake, so if he wanted to eat the cake in the evening,
then we would eat the cake in the evening. And I enjoyed the cake in the evening too,
because cake is just delicious, no matter what time. But yeah, it definitely
looks like I totally went from Team Cake In The Evening to
Team Cake In The Afternoon. "Peace, joy, pancakes!"
So my question for you is: Are you team #CakeInTheAfternoon or Team #CakeInTheEvening?
And before I filmed this video, I asked you on Instagram about cake idioms in
German. And you let me know about a lot of interesting sayings,
so thank you! Did I use the cake idioms I used in this video correctly?
Please let me know in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching. I also made an English version of this video.
Link to the English version of the video down in the description box below. You can
also follow me on Instagram @WantedAdventure. I usually do my Instagram stories in
German. And a very, very, very big thank you to our patrons on Patreon. Many, many,
many thanks for your support. Thank you so much. Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
Aside from birthday parties in the US, I just wasn't used to eating
cake in the middle of the day. My body and my brain were conditioned that when
"Nachmittisch"..."Nachmittisch"! "Nachmittisch"? That's "Nachmittags" plus "Nachtisch". Nachmittisch!