For years – so many years – I have been sharing with you that taking time to breathe is essential to good health. NO MATTER HOW BUSY YOU ARE. And today getting ready for writing this week’s blog, I took that coaching to heart…my heart.
One week until Christmas – Merry Christmas to all (Happy Kwanzaa and Hanukkah too) and I asked myself “Is there anything missing that would bring me pleasure and joy for celebrating with my wonderful family and my little grands”?
What popped immediately into my head was Angel Food Cake.
Every year my mom and gram would cook at Angel Food cake for Christmas to celebrate the “birth of Jesus”. The memory felt warm, sentimental and so right to consider making a cake for our family gathering. My mom and gram have been gone for a long time, so the Angel Food cake was a “tradition” that felt lost.
And I did what any of you would have done…I researched making the cake. HOLY SMOKES. It requires 12 egg whites perfectly mixed until they peak; folding in very little flour without losing the egg white peaks; and cooling the cake upside down.
This is where I gained new and deep respect for my mom and gram. This recipe requires hours, attention and using the entire kitchen and unless you get it right, it cooks flat. But, the result they baked up, was a beautiful cake, light as light can be and delicious.
Ok, you can think that I am crazy to take this on for the family’s celebration. Presents to wrap; food to prepare; stockings to fill; end of the year prep with my clients and solving world peace. OK, maybe not world peace, but at least some symmetry for the holidays.
Yup, I am making the cake.
I already made my shopping list to get the ingredients. I contacted my “egg” supplier for a fresh dozen eggs for the cake – when you are a master gardener like me, you have an egg supplier. (She has 50 hens laying dozens of eggs every day).
SIGNIFICANCE: My mom and gram were busy right before Christmas too and yet there on Christmas morning, waiting for the birthday song to Jesus, was this amazing cake with sprinkles and butter/sugar icing drooling down it sides. I never even knew what that meant in the amount of time. But the significance to me now is not lost. My grands will receive a bit of my mom and gram this Christmas. All sides of my family honored, me fussing in the kitchen and worried about the cake and the proud moment of lighting the birthday candle to share with my baby grands. And you know what, my grands won’t know the time, energy or fussing, but they will sing Happy Birthday to their special friend. And all of them know the birthday song already.
Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Christmas, please allow me to share my heartfelt wishes and thoughts to you and yours at this time of the year.
I know, you can’t add one more thing to your list or time this holiday season.
But, if you could, what would you do that brings you Angel Food Cake pleasure?
To your success,
P.S. Hanukkah A festival celebrating liberation from oppression, freedom of worship, and finding light in the darkest of times.
Kwanzaa is a week-long annual celebration held in the United States and other nations of the African diaspora in the Americas to honor African heritage in African-American culture.