I grew up reading plenty of Indonesian folklore stories. One of the stories that stuck with me is the Indonesian folklore about a princess who is being held by an evil witch who shut her away in a tower in the middle of a forest. The start of this particular Indonesian folklore is pretty similar to so many other Western fairy tales, such as Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty. But the similarity ends there.
The story goes that the Indonesian princess loves to knit and she spent her days knitting near the window. One day, her knitting needle dropped to the ground. Out of desperation, she shouts out a promise to marry anyone who brings back the needle to her, if it’s a guy, or to take them as a sister, if it’s a girl. Later, a dog found and returned it to her. As promised, she agreed to marry the dog, who turned out to be a cursed prince. As we all told, they live happily ever after.
I have the same type of desperation when it comes to midnight cake craving
I would wake up by 1 AM and couldn’t think of anything except delicious cakes. Then I would text my friends the same thing: to get me one and I’ll take them as a sister or a partner, you know will marry for a cake type of thing. But until now no one has ever gotten me one. I rationalized this with the fact that there is hardly any cake shop opens after 11 PM but now I am thinking maybe they just don’t want to be my family.
Sometimes, in my most desperate moments in life, I have considered marrying for a cake, especially if it’s a birthday cake.