Anticipation is its own Reward!

Mom made the BEST Angel Food Cake!

I had raptured on so much about the absolutely light, heavenly, melt in your mouth Angel Food Cake that my Mother used to make at Easter and for Birthdays, that my husband order one for Easter. Just the thought of the cake from my childhood brought visions of sunlight streaming in through the kitchen window as Mom whipped up batter in the mix master. Cloud like billows of 12 egg whites with fine sifted cake flour added a little at a time, made this an Event unto itself. The great ‘yes we want this batter to stick and creep up the sides of the pan with the hole in the center’ of olden days, not ever non-stick, created this airy tall cake with a crusty top. Then when it was baked to perfection, Mom did this magic act of balancing the ‘Inverted’ cake on a bottle, to cool for 2hrs! I was in Awe! From my childhood to that of my nieces, Mom created her kitchen alchemy for us all to experience. Lucky lucky us!

So with cake anticipation heavily on my mind, I avoided any sweets leading up to the grand Easter week-end. Cut back a bit on the peanut butter. Kept to my exercising regime, knowing heavenly tastes were coming. Then he brought it home.

Did you tell them buttercream frosting??? Yes. And specify Angel Food Cake??? Yes. Where was the hole in the middle??? Where were the light, fluffy, peaks of buttercream floating on top that you could scoop a fingerful off and no one would know??? This cake was more like a wedding cake, ready to hold 10 tiers. You could hold the Chrysler building on this cake! So we thought maybe it was a different Chicago/New England take on the same cake, and it would taste similar. We are open-minded cake people; we could go with the tide and handle small differences in cakes of the world.

Then the moment of truth arrived. Red wine in hand, we cut the cake with a heavy duty knife. There are reasons you only get a SMALL slice of a wedding cake. The body can only handle so much. As we delved into this thick, sweet, dense, creation, it became clearer with each bite, that yes this tastes good, no it’s not anywhere near Angel Food, and Boy this is so not good for the body! It held an addiction all its own. When we did ‘step away from the cake!’, we knew for our own health sake, this cake had to leave the building! I wrapped it, boxed it, and put it in the car for the trip to my husband’s office on Monday.

So I encourage everyone to immerse yourselves in Anticipation. Anticipation moves you through the world, is good for the soul, and triggers the imagination big time. But as we’ve all heard, release Expectations! Let go of the end results, and be surprised by what happens. Expect nothing from anyone, and you’ll never be disappointed!