My favorite cake recipe

For those of you that have read my blog before, you may have noticed that I don't post with a high degree of frequency. Much as I'd like to, I just don't always have the thoughts well formulated enough or when I do, I can't seem to find the free quiet time to put them in cyberspace. Part of the reason it takes me so long to post is that I tend to get an idea in my head and then spend days (weeks?) mulling it over until it ends up just the way I want it to be. That's definitely the case for this blog.

Close to two months ago, I heard someone use the expression "you can't have your cake and eat it, too." Of course, I've heard this expression many times before. But for some reason, it hit me as particularly silly this time around. The first thought that went through my mind was "Well why not? If I have it, why can't I eat it?" So I was going to blog on this silly expression and headed off to Google to do my research on the origins of the phrase. Turns out, this was not the original way it was written, and it makes a lot more sense after reading the background. (I was going to include a link to the origin, but it's not really important here... you can Google it if you're actually interested.) So, there goes my blog on the "having your cake and eating it, too" thing. On to the next topic. Of course, now all I can think about is cake!

Being a chocoholic (and an avid fan of most any kind of cake), I've been dwelling on "cake" for the past several weeks. It was easier to put the thought out of my head a few weeks ago when I was getting ready for a swimsuit-clad, week-long vacation. But, now that I'm back and have no intentions of putting on a 2-piece again anytime soon, cake is back on my mind. Of course, it just wouldn't be me if I let cake just be cake. What kind of blog entry would that be?!?

One of my biggest daily challenges is a balance between my work priorities, my family priorities, my house priorities, my marriage priorities and my self priorities. I love crossing things off my to-do list (in any one of these categories) though I've realized that at the end of the day, some of those cross-offs leave me more satisfied than others. Yes, this relates to cake.

My "standard" cake is yellow with chocolate frosting. I can always seem to find room for a slice of this kind, no matter how full I might be and a yellow cake with chocolate frosting is pretty easy to find... most every bakery carries one, they're not that expensive, and in a pinch, I can even find the pre-packaged ones that are so full of preservatives that they can stay fresh for weeks. Pretty much anyone can make one of these cakes, all you need is a mix, a few simple ingredients and a tub of frosting. Practice once or twice, and any dummy can do it. Quick, easy, and tastes pretty good.

Yellow cake with chocolate frosting reminds me of my tasks at work. There's no shortage of them, I can always seem to make room for "just one more," they're easy to find, and trust me, the issues that come up can certainly last for weeks. Good as I might be at my job, the "special" part, the part that might make me stand out from me peers, is not in the cake itself. It's in the way I decorate the cake... sprinkles, roses, fancy writing. I'm really good at that part. But the basic job? It's just like following the recipe off the back of a cake box. Practice once or twice, and any dummy can do it.

When I cross a work item off my to-do list, it's satisfying, just like yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Once in a while it's a little more exciting... say a "yellow layer cake with chocolate frosting and fruit filling in the middle" kind of an accomplishment. But all in all, it's just yellow cake.

Now there's strawberry shortcake... Yum! This is better than yellow cake, but I don't seem to get enough of this. It takes a little more work to make strawberry shortcake, and I feel that I don't have this nearly often enough. Strawberry shortcake makes me think of my house priorities, things like cleaning, organizing a closet, grocery shopping. Yes, I might be strange, but these things bring me great satisfaction. Crossing these "to-do's" off my list makes me feel like I've accomplished something important, like I've contributed to a part of my life that's important to me. I don't cross off nearly as many "house" to-do's as "work" to-do's, though they make me happier when I do find the time and the energy... just like making strawberry shortcake.

Now comes the ultimate... one of those really rich, fudgy chocolate mousse kinds of cake, the kind with raspberry sauce drizzled over the top and on the plate for decoration, maybe even some chocolate shavings on top. If you ask me, there's nothing better. These cakes are a lot more complicated to make. I certainly can't buy them in a box, they're expensive at the bakery, and you have to time them just right so they turn out the way you've planned. To make one of these, you really have to practice. This is the cake that, sadly, I eat the least, even though I love it the most. This is like my self, marriage and family priorities.

When my (almost) 1-year-old looks right at me and says "mama" or my 3-year-old giggles until she hiccups or says something amazing like, "Mommy, you're my very best friend" or I steal an hour away to treat myself to some Kat Time or my husband tells me he loves me and he's proud to be married to me and he couldn't be happier with the two beautiful children we've made... these are the rich, fudgy chocolate mousse cake kind of moments. These are the moments that require the most work, that you can't buy in a box and you have to make from scratch. These are the moments that require the most precise timing, the most effort, but in the end, are the moments you want to savor for as long as you can, and then recreate over and over again and again and again.

So here's what I'm thinking... why settle for yellow cake, or even strawberry shortcake, when there's this other, amazing fudgy chocolate mousse cake available to me? Why focus so much time and effort on work or even house stuff, when it's really family, marriage and self that are the most important and most rewarding things in life? It's a hard balance to strike. I have to work to afford the house. And without the house, I can't raise the family the way I want to. But why do I expend so much of my energy on the "other stuff" when that's not what matters most?

My boss reads my blog, so I need to say on the record that I have no intentions of quitting my job or slacking off at work. In case my mother-in-law is reading this, I also have no intentions of letting my house become a pig-pen or letting my kids starve. But, where all this cake talk has led me is to a much more conscious decision to focus more on the good stuff and less on the "average" stuff... to spend more time making chocolate mousse cake and less time settling for yellow cake with chocolate frosting... to leave work at the office and make every single solitary moment count with the people I love the most. Yes, there's always room for one more slice of the yellow cake... but at least for today, I think I'll pass on that one and save room for the good stuff. After all, I already have the best recipe... all I need to do is keep practicing.