Mom's Angel Food Cake Pan

I remember watching a sitcom one time where a newly wed woman was fixing a roast. She cut it in half and put it in the oven. Her new husband watched with wonder and finally asked her why she cut the roast in half. She rolled her eyes and stated that he obviously knew nothing about cooking.
Later, curiosity got the best of her and she called her mom to ask why she always cut the roast in half before putting it in the oven. Her mom told her that it was always the way they fixed it and it always turned out just right.
Later, the mother called *her* mom and asked why she always cut the roast in half before putting it in the oven. Her mom said, “Because it wouldn’t fit in the pan.”

Funny, but true--we do things out of tradition and we don't know the reason we do them.

When we go out I don’t get Carrot Cake because it always tastes like Spice Cake (which I’m never in the mood for) and it always has Cream Cheese frosting.
I remember when I was a child mom made the best Carrot Cake. It was made in an Angel Food pan, so it was tall with straight sides and a hole in the middle. It was sliced in wedges, not squares. She never put Cream Cheese Frosting on it…probably for no other reason than she likes cake without frosting. Besides, it never really needed it. The edges were wonderfully crispy—and who would want to ruin that with frosting?

Yesterday I decided to recreate that for my children. I made Carrot Cake from my mom’s recipe using her Angel Food pan. Everything was going well right up until it was in the oven for a couple of minutes. I looked in and the batter was leaking out the bottom of the two-piece Angel Food pan and dripping on the oven floor. I put a cookie sheet on the shelf under it and hurriedly called my mother to find out what I had done wrong and if I could salvage it.
“WHY is the batter leaking out? I used your recipe and your pan!”
“It’s because it’s a two-piece pan,” she said. Then she went on to explain that Angel Food cake doesn’t have any oil in it, therefore it doesn’t leak out of the pan. Carrot Cake has oil in it. “It would have been better in a Bundt pan.”

That’s when it hit me.
Mom didn’t have a Bundt pan until some time in the 80’s. She had always used the Angel Food pan because that’s the only pan she had. Matter of fact, I don’t remember her baking sheet cakes when I was younger, either. They were always two-tiered round cakes. I had no idea why I was using the Angel Food pan instead of a Bundt pan other than the fact that it’s the way my mom always did it.

She assured me that it would be fine if I set the pan on a cookie sheet—that it would soon stop leaking. She was right. It turned out well and is delicious.

Next time I’ll use a Bundt pan. But I still won’t put frosting on it.

So what about you--are you doing things out of tradition? At home? At work? At church? Are you afraid to do things in a different way just because "this is the way we've always done it"? Traditions aren't a bad thing, but if we get hung up on them, it's not healthy.

Blessings to you, my friends.

Reflections

One night, when he was six years old, Timothy appeared at my bedside. When he saw I was “awake” (more like startled into consciousness by the feeling that someone was at the bedside, WATCHING me) he climbed into bed and snuggled in close. Very close…like a second skin. He said he “just wanted to sleep with me.” Uh-huh. Since he is my third child I knew there was another reason.
After a while of snuggling I told him that he had to go to his bed. This is where the truth came out. He wailed, “My bed is broke!”
Now, once upon a time it alarmed me when he said his bed was broke, but the child’s mind was still learning the language…and such a hard language it is! You see…when you get up in the mornings, you must make your bed…therefore, when it is unmade, it must be broken!

…aren’t we this way with our Heavenly Father. When something is wrong, we go into His presence, but hem-haw around—as if He didn’t know something was wrong. Sometimes He must prod us to get us to tell Him what is bothering us. He cannot help us unless we ask.

Yes, I went into Timothy’s room and he turned on the light to reveal that the sheet had come undone at the foot of his bed. As I tucked it back into place, he heaped praises on me and thanked me for fixing his bed.
Thank you, Lord, for helping put the “undone” things back in place in my life.