Life is cake

On a recent hike, the thought came to me that life is cake.  Most people like some type of cake.  I did not like cake until after I got pregnant with my first child.
My mother and I went to a cake tasting, and it changed me forever.

A universal thing about raising kids is baking.  It is a unifying task worthy of love and adoration.
Without a doubt almost every mom has learned to bake something. Cookies, pies, cakes, bread, biscuits, or brownies, we all loved baked items.

I am an excellent cook, but not so much a great baker. Do you know why?
Cooking allows for creativity. I can make it up as I go. Baking is an exact science.
If you change the recipie/ formula, you change the outcome. It requires measurement and precision. You must comply amd follow directions. Most importantly, it requires attentive patience.
For all these reasons, my results always vary.

Life is this way. People are cooking and burning cake batter, when they should be baking. Others are baking what should probably be cooked stovetop.   Some people dont have the patience for delayed gratification.  Life seems to happen in slow motion and in some instances it happens at a 2x playback speed, with only the highlight reel. Sometimes cake burns, and so does intervals of our lives. Patience is a virtue and so is baking. Life also requires attentive patience.  Day trading is a great example.
If you take your eyes off the trends or patterns you loose.  In baking and in life, trying to rush results can create disaster.

The ingredients matter. Too much  salt ruins it, just a pinch, makes it sweet. Too much butter will flatten. Too much egg makes it spongy. Too little butter will make it dry. Too little egg and things fall apart.

Following the exact ingredients to the measure is always the best practice. Following directions in life is too. There is plenty of room for "creative cooking" in life. When we are baking, we have to remain focused. If we substitute ingredients, or leave them out, we will completely alter the outcome. Life is the same way. I've attempted a short cut or two. I've totally bypassed fundamentals. When things fell apart, I've nevered wondered why. I knew exactly where I diverted and unraveled.

Have you ever flavored a cake? A little bit goes a long way. If you use too much, you'll ruin it. Sometimes we think we need flavor, when it taste perfect as is. It reminds me of pound cake. Flavoring and icing is great, but there is something special about unadulterated pound cake. Sometimes we can take our lives for granted. We make a mess of things.   Some always try to create rum cake when plain pound cake would do.

Some of us put too much emphasis on what the cake looks like, versus what it taste like. I like my cake buttery and not too sweet. Maybe it doesn't slide out the pan. Maybe it's not picture worthy. Maybe it's solely for the private personal pleasure of my tastebuds and love handles. Am I throwing out an entire cake that fell apart?
Heck no! I eat it out the pan.
In today's age, I often find myself deciding on what I'll keep for myself (or to myself) and what I'll post, blog about, or share. What matters most to me is that my experiences happen FOR me. When I choose to share them, I hope to transfer those moments, lessons, and joy to others. I'm my life, I live for myself, not for the approval of others. It's the experiences and moments that I keep "for my eyes only" that make the fragmented shared moments worth sharing. My life is simply extraordinary. All of it. ( but only I know that.) Which reminds me. Every excellent baker has this secret ingredient that makes their recipie <*razzle dazzle*> Unless they share it, yours will never turn out like theirs. Moral: Keep these things to yourself.

I remember when I discovered baking pound cake in my oversized muffin pans.
My whole life changed. It reduced cooking time. It was the perfect single quantity. It made pound cake customizable and manageable. I could have pound cake for breakfast. There have been times in my life that I had an oversized muffin pan discovery. I had been doing thing one way for such a long time.
I was fully enjoying my life as I knew it, until I discovered my coveted "aspirations/desires" packaged differently. It became a game changer. I was doing twice as good with half the effort. I was living a more peaceful enjoyable experience. All of this because I tweaked a few things.

Sometimes you can have your cake, but you'll never enjoy it. (Or eat it too) Maybe it gets consumed by others. Maybe you're saving it for a special occasion. Maybe your cake is artificial.  Maybe its butter and sugar free. Maybe you get the EXPENSIVE and utterly costly cake, and are too busy and preoccupied to enjoy it.
Such is life.


Sometimes you do everything right, and it turns out unexpected. Some times you follow directions and realize you don't like cake; you prefer pies.  Sometimes everything is just as you hoped for, and fresh out of the warm oven, before it completely cools, you enjoy that mouth watering bite.

Cooking is easy. BAKING is simple, but not as easy as one might think. In my experience, we forget that in life, if we get something sweet out of it, it's a good deal.
I'm grateful that with much intention and improvement, along with the finest ingriedients (relationships) my life gets sweeter as the days go by, and I'm enjoying every bite guilt free. I wish the same for you.

Abundance Always

#lifeofbliss #letthemeatcake #lifeiscake