Thursday, August 7, 2008

This is the coffee cake I've been dreaming about. Literally.



After an exhausting day of pre-back-to-school preparations in a classroom without air conditioning and a bunch of other extenuating circumstances that would bore anyone except other weary, bitching teachers dangling along my school grapevine, I took a nap. A sweet nap full of that blissful REM stuff. And I had a dream. A dream about this delicious cherry coffee cake that I haven't eaten or even thought about since I was a young child. At least, er twenty-something years or so. In my dream, it smelled and tasted just as warm and sweet and delicious as it was then. It even had been nibbled a-la-spoon-in-the-pan style by my mom. Just as she loves to do. And now I love to do. I was so confused by this buried memory that I called my mom in a fog right away upon waking to confirm that, yes, this very cherry coffee cake existed in my childhood and not just in my "dream childhood." She told me that it was my grandma's recipe and dug it out for me to record.

So tonight, while I should be writing my first week of school plans, I'm baking instead. I mean everyone needs a little sustenance while working late, right? No duh. (Another reversion to childhood. It seemed appropriate.) Of course it doesn't matter that this recipe has the fat/calorie content only of recipes from half a century ago. As I whisked ridiculous quantities of oil, eggs, and sugar together I reminded myself that my grandma is still alive. And she's alive despite having prayed and begged for death since my grandpa died in the late 70s. And I have a will to live so I should be fine.

So I placed the anticipated indulgence in the oven and as it baked the house filled with the aroma of childhood and Sunday funnies and of being tucked into bed at night. And here it is. Waiting for me to eat. A treat that has brought warmth and comfort to at least 3 generations (this must be the reason why my parents stayed married as long as they did!) and has been decades in the making in my head.

2 comments:

Maigh said...

I can almost smell them from here... nomnomnom

I'm thinkin' we need to have a girls day of sipping adult beverages and baking piles of naughty stuff.

Anonymous said...

OMG OMG OMG! WANT NOW!