Shelf Stable #2 - Caldosian Chocolate Cake
On the importance of farming simulation games, good chocolate, and the power of gifting food.
I started a life-long love affair during the summer of 2003, one which I haven’t been able to shake as I’ve grown into adulthood. Memories from this time are fragmented reels stitched together by association and feeling, most likely because I spent much of this summer glued to multiple screens. It was the era of the early internet, when online safety was a fledgling concept and working class parents were too tired to understand or care how their hooligan children were spending time as they surfed from website to website watching Salad Fingers videos, feeding their digital pets pixelated omelettes (yes, that’s how Neopets spells it), or starting seemingly innocent friendships with people in chat rooms.
This was especially true during summers in Robinson, Texas, a small agricultural town outside of its more infamous sibling, Waco. We had a main road with four stop-lights, a small grocery store, a select few fast-food chains, and large plots of land. While summer evening winds carried the scent of sweet hay and wild flowers and there was just enough darkness at night to make out a few constellations, the days felt almost unbearable. A glaring sun played bully to a submissively blue sky, the air was heavy with humidity, and just walking to the mailbox took an enormous physical toll for a chubby middle-schooler like myself. Unless we were making our way to the neighbor’s blow-up pool or to get a coveted Blizzard from Dairy Queen, I was an indoor cat that was happy to spend the day pressing A on my Gameboy Advance.
Playing games has always been in my blood, my father being an avid gamer as a kid through classic arcade and beat-em-up games. While we never had the newest console, we made the most with what we had, which meant playing hours of a single game to squeeze as much out of it as we could. To this day, I don’t think I’ve spent more time in a fictional world than I have in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, a game that holds such significance in my childhood. While it wasn’t the first in this series, it has the distinct honor of having solidified the four major tropes we see in the “cozy” game genre today: Farming, Cooking, Mining, and, of course, Romance. And to be clear, while all of the other mechanics were fun, the latter really was the highlight of my experience.
In the early days, all protagonists were male and, due to compulsory heterosexuality, the romance options were female. And being gay in a small town in Texas in the 90s and early-aughts was exactly what it sounds like - hard, often lonely, and only alleviated by the fact that my mother was so accepting. Harvest Moon gave me a space to engage with the fantasies in my head: What if I were like all of the other boys around me? What if my life’s path was to work on my family’s farm? I, too, could experience the highs and lows of “heart events” with a female character through small acts of kindness like making her homey dishes using ingredients that I had grown on my own land. This electronic daydream made me envious of my peers, but also helped me settled into myself. At the end of each exhausting day of wooing multiple female romance candidates with food related gifts and tilling away on my virtual farm, I knew that it was exactly that. A game, a fantasy, and that I didn’t want to be any one other than who I was. It also taught me the effect that a wonderfully crafted meal can have on the people around you and for that I’ll be forever grateful.
Food Notes
Fast forward to 2025 and there are countless games in this category, but one has truly risen above the rest for me. Fields of Mistria is a guiding light in times where many game developers think that they can shovel out less-than-mediocre games, label them as “cozy”, and hope that they can make a few bucks on “uncritical gamers.” Unfortunately for many games this year, the girls are discerning and we won’t stand for it. What will we stand for? A that is game is crafted so lovingly for its audience, gifting the geriatric stalwarts of farming sims like myself with a love letter to its genre and building upon its predecessors achievements. Mistria is a world that I just get lost in, with its laugh-out-loud dialogue, diverse cast of romancables, and just the cutest cows you’ve ever seen. And like any farming sim, food is at the core of its gameplay. The recipes you craft in your growing kitchen are from a medley of cultures and eat pixelated food icon makes me wish that I could make each of them.
As this month is March and one of my favorite in-game boyfriends shares that name, I thought I’d make one of his favorite recipes to celebrate: the Caldosian Chocolate Cake. Please admire us at looking cute at the Animal Festival above. Immediately, this chocolate cake struck me with its description because this is exactly the kind of cake that my husband asks for every year for his birthday. An overload of chocolate, piled high for everyone to share. Thankfully, good chocolate is something that is never too far out of reach in my home. From my favorite cocoa powder, Droste, to the ubiquitous Guittard chocolate chips, I can always whip up a chocolate cake to win the hearts of all my boos. Though, I’ve found it odd that in many of these games, you’re often gifting a whole cake to one person, which, to be fair, is both incredibly romantic and utterly obscene, I put the pedal to the metal to find the perfect recipe that fits the bill of what March was looking for. This one from New York Times Cooking was so perfectly luscious that I simply couldn’t change a thing. Double it to make a two tier cake and top it with anything your heart desires. Because the cake itself was truly so chocolatey, I decided to top it with torched Swiss merengue to convey the flame in my heart for March (and my husband, as he says “but what about me?” from the other side of the couch).
In Other News
What I’m reading: Run Away With Me, Girl by Battan
Last year, I read almost the entirety of the Pokemon Adventures collection and binged both seasons of Jujustu Kaisen. Getting back to one’s true self feels so good doesn’t it? I’ve been away from both the manga and anime mediums for a while, but this year is the year I fall head first back into the highest artforms of Japanese media and my new outlet has opened up less than 10 minutes from my home. To say that I have been waiting with such bated breath for Reggie’s Manga Shop to open is an understatement. I’ve been stalking to be honest, but the owner seems to like me so that’s ok. This book was the first in their Adult Manga Book Club, a monthly convening to discuss a new genre of manga through the first volume of a series. Run Away With Me, Girl is a tragic story about two women who dated in high school, but lost touch when going to college. In adulthood they find that they both still have feelings for each other, but one woman is currently pregnant and engaged to be married. This book is for you if you like soft, pining romances where the little acts of kindness build into a grand gesture.
What I’m doing: Potato Party
This is your sign to have a seasonal dinner party with your closest friends. This idea struck me last New Years when I completed Casper Ter Kuile’s Ritual Life Planner. While this precious gift of a guidebook is no longer in print, it helped me really hone in on what I wanted to celebrate in life through ritual. Seasons and food were among the top ones. Since then, we’ve hosted many parties, but we’ve finally solidified the structure - make one seasonal produce the star of the dinner. Have all of your friends bring a dish that somehow incorporates this ingredient. Not only is it a great way to try a variety of dishes, for the girlies like us who love food, we get to experiment in the kitchen a bit. While my sweet potato pie ice cream was a disaster (RIP, I cannot talk about it further), my husband and I brought these utterly delicious Amish Potato Rolls. Shout out to my dear friend, Kayla, who planned this one and created the tablescape. Next up, Bean Party. Watch for an update on that in May.
Until next month, eat well.
Desmond Garden