Audrey Shulman has been putting the adage that “the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” to the test.
Since the start of 2013, the self-described southern transplant and aspiring screenwriter has been on a mission to bake 50 cakes and take them to 50 different bars across the Los Angeles area to meet single men. She’s also been chronicling her adventures in a blog aptly titled “Sitting in bars with cake.”
The idea to bake her way into getting a boyfriend came to Shulman by mere chance.
“In June of last year, I baked a cherry cake for my best friend Chrissy’s birthday, and ended up standing at the Edendale bar in Los Feliz for several hours, holding the leftover half,” she explains.
“The cake was magic, because it made me a magnet; suddenly every boy within spitting distance was looking at me, silently formulating an action plan on how to come over.”
This unexpected success pushed Audrey to continue employing the strategy, updating her readers periodically on what transpired and sharing what kind of dessert she brought along.
Has it worked? After 16 different cakes, and one trip to Austin, Texas, not yet.
During her first outing, she realized that showing up late to a packed bar pretty much made it impossible for her to talk to single men. On her second venture, the baker’s plan was foiled by the fact that she brought a dessert to a pre-planned event. This resulted in her giving away every piece of the cake to her friends instead of potential suitors.
“It is a hard, hard thing for me to hold a baked good and not give pieces away,” she mused. “That’s just bad manners.”
She did find a boyfriend at one point, writing that he might be the one to make her give up Cakebarring™ for good, but they’ve split up as of her most recent post, leaving her free to hit the bar-and-baked-goods scene again—and write about it.
Shulman might not be having much success, but she recognizes that her constant striking out is amusing and endearing fodder for her readers.
“Maybe some of you are happy this happened so the blog never ends,” she notes in her latest post.
CORRECTION: Shulman clarified the status of her quest in an email to the Daily Dot:
*Cakebarring HAS indeed worked, as I met the last boy I dated by offering him a piece of banana cake.
*This boy I dated was not my boyfriend, as he recently ran away upon our discussing this, which means that the mission continues for me to find a boyfriend who cares about elderly people getting lonely as much as I do.
H/T @laurenonizzle | Photo via Audrey Shulman/ Sitting in bars with cake