Making Memories with the Past

I never understood how people could be so sentimental until I became a mother and now I am as sappy as can be. This didn’t even really occur to me until my Aunt Lori moved to town and we were going to celebrate her birthday. My role for family birthdays is making the cake (I love me some dessert). My Aunt went onto explain how she wanted Angel Food Cake because that is what my Grandma Smock always made for her kid's birthdays growing up. Now, at this point my spidey sense started tingling because I had never made Angel Food Cake and I was under the impression that it wasn’t the easiest cake to make. Then my mom chimed in to say she had the cake pan my grandma used to make all of the kids birthday cakes and I was sold, challenge accepted!

I wish I had known my grandma better. We moved away from that neck of the woods when I was 7 and only made it back there every couple of years. One memory that always brings a smile to my face is when we went to visit my grandparents and my grandma asked if we were hungry. We said, "Yes." and so she started to make some popcorn. She hands us one bowl of popcorn (which was plenty for me and my sisters), but over the next few minutes, she kept on handing out more and more bowls of popcorn, maybe like 4 microwavable bags, and three of those bowls of popcorn were not eaten. Goodness, this memory makes me laugh but also reminds me of my grandma’s sweet disposition and generosity. These thoughts are reinforced whenever my mom brings up memories of her mom or reminds me that something I love about her she learned it from her mom. It is really cool how I am getting to know my grandma now and how I get to see that legacy through my mom and hopefully carry on those characteristics as well.

Having the cake pan in hand, I left my parent's house feeling both nervous and excited for making this dessert and hoping that I wouldn’t have to end up buying it from the store. I set to work on it, got all the ingredients out, my son was taking his nap, let’s do this… HOLD UP! Recipe calls for 12 egg whites, at room temperature… Well, I guess we will wait 30 minutes.

Thirty minutes later and baking was a go. I mixed all ingredients and started to whip my egg whites to have peaks, yes this takes forever and guess what I hear? That’s right, the joyous sounds of a baby waking up from a nap and your heart dropping because you were for sure you had more time… oh motherhood. I get my son, get him distracted and back to whipping! While whipping I had a lot of time to think of my grandma and realized she made this cake for all of her 11 kids. Yes you read that correctly, ELEVEN, and I only have to deal with one bumping into my legs with his Batmobile walker. This brought a smile to my face, Grandma Smock you were one tough cookie.

Cake is now in the oven and is looking good… as I sing “just don’t burn it, just don’t burn it”. BEEP… Timer is up, moment of truth, SUCCESS… well at least in the looks department. I am pretty happy with myself and thinking how I wish I had had the opportunity to do this with my grandma. But that’s just it… with getting to use her cake pan and get to bring back a part of my Aunt Lori’s past for her birthday, I felt a little part of my grandma baking with me. Told you I am more sentimental these days but I am truly happy that I am. Memories make life more meaningful and my mom has allowed me to get to know my grandma through these memories and through allowing me to use heirlooms so that I can feel closer to her.

So, I guess what I am trying to say is thank you mom for bringing grandma back to me with stories and trusting me to use her stuff so that we can make memories with the past.

P.S. Cake was very good, recipe taken from:

#angelfoodcake