Tag Archives: cake

Christmas cake revisited

We’re getting ready to go to my in-laws’ for Christmas–we leave tomorrow, as soon as I get off work. The day after Christmas, we’re connecting with Heidi, Mike and little James in Indianapolis and driving to Wisconsin, where we’ll spend three days with my parents and touch in with Mama Kitty and Big Jake. From there, my husband and I hop on a train back to Chicago, where our good friend Tyler and his lovely lady Liz will be at our apartment (we mailed them a key in case you’re curious). And the day after that, we head to South Bend for our annual New Years party!

So if you’re wondering where the heck I am in the days to come, now you know.

The preparations involve:

-Packing for a week, and light enough that we can carry it all back on the train.

-Packing every single outfit I may possibly want to wear . . . which conflicts with the whole concept of ‘packing light.’ I’ll be duking it out with the suitcase tonight.

-Packing up my old camera for bequeathment to Heidi–more about that soon!

-Cleaning the house! We can’t have Tyler and Liz entering a den of filth.

-Trying to rid the hallway once and for all of its weird funk. Help me, Airwick!

–Figure out the computer situation so that I can manage to log in remotely to my work computer on a daily basis. Yep, I’m “off” for the week between Christmas and New Years . . . but not quite “off” if you know what I mean.

Presents have already been transported to Indiana, materials to make my annual Christmas cake await in the kitchen of my mother-in-law Sara, and, well, there you have it. Now if you feel the need to send Christmas mojo, good karma, well wishes, or prayers my way, you can locate me . . . in your mind.

Alrighty then! For the rest of what I want to share this morning, check out this link, which will take you to my post last year about Christmas cake. My husband and I don’t have a lot of traditions at this point. We’ve never celebrated Christmas on our own, and have no kiddos. But the one thing that I’ve made a point to do every year is whip up an angel food cake and . . . well, you can read it about it yourself. It’s my favoritest thing. It makes me feel all Christmassy inside.

So! Where are all of you going to be next week? And anyone want to jump on the Christmas cake bandwagon?

A Christmas tradition: cake for breakfast

We spent this past Christmas with my in-laws in Indiana. It was such a relaxing time–we temporarily got to push the pause button on this whole ‘being adults’ thing and simply chill out. Be fed. Be taken care of. I love passing the adult baton when staying with parents. It’s so nice.

The manger scene had, as usual, been invaded.

If there weren’t little plastic army guys around, it just wouldn’t feel right. It’s tradition!

At least the Hulk didn’t make the cut this year. He was a little . . . distracting.

The other staple in my in-laws’ household is this Christmas tree. They swear it’s the last year for it–the tree is at least half a century old, and is held upright by a string attached to the corner cabinet.

And every year, it’s covered in ornaments. Plastered. Coated. This is necessary in order to cover the old and bare branches.

Another holiday tradition is this fruit salad.

It’s been in the family for years, and it’s always the guys’ responsibility to make it. Or so I gather. Or choose to gather.

A potential Christmas tradition in the making–playing games. My parents gave me both Dominion and Blokus for Christmas, and the fun-loving violence they generate is a holiday must. Have I mentioned that I’m competitive?

Oh, there’s my stick of Burt’s Bees! If you see some Burt’s hanging around, you can bet your bonnet I’m somewhere closeby.

However, my absolute favorite Christmas tradition is eating angel food cake for breakfast on Christmas morning. I make it Christmas Eve, and leave it to cool overnight, hanging upside down over a beer bottle.

It all started when we were young things. To get us little tykes to focus on Jesus’s birth instead of just the enticing pile of presents, my parents would make a birthday cake for Jesus, and we would sing him “happy birthday.”

In the words of my Mom, “Having a candle and singing Happy Birthday is something young children can relate to, and helps keep the ‘real meaning of Christmas’–Jesus’ birthday–in the picture for them even if they don’t get all the theology.”

The angel food cake is white to represent how God created us in his image, perfect beings in a beautiful garden.

Dad would read from Genesis:

God saw all that he had made and it was very good.  (Gen 1:31)

Then we smeared the cake with raspberry jam.

This represents sin entering the world and tarring humanity, so we would read about Adam and Eve’s disobedience in Genesis chapter 3. There’s probably a deep metaphor underlying it all about sin tasting delicious, but let’s leave that for future ponderings.

Finally, we top the whole thing off with generous poofs of freshly whipped cream. We put the metal bowl and mixer attachments in the freezer for maybe 20 minutes prior to the whipping process–I’m told it helps the cream poof better.

Slather on that cream! We have to cover every bit of that raspberry jam! This repesents Jesus coming to earth and making us righteous and pure through his perfect life and death.

We read from Isaiah:

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”  (Is 1:18)

And then we serve it up!

Over the years we have stopped singing happy birthday, but we continue to make the cake and read the Scriptures. If you’re interested, my diligent mother typed up a Word document with the complete passages we’ve read throughout the years. Thanks Mom! Now I don’t have to scratch my head every year and ask myself “Now what is it exactly we read?”

I leave you with a picture of my husband with his brother and dad. I just love Christmas, and I just love these guys!