Pound Cake Mishap

Proverbs 4:13 “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go:

                                                                   keep her: for she is thy life.”

When I was growing up and getting old enough to begin cooking Mama allowed me to make cakes.  Sometimes it was a box mix and then sometimes it was her Pound Cake recipe.  One such day I was mixing the ingredients for a Pound Cake.  Mama had told me to always check the list of ingredients before pouring the batter into the cake pan.  So as I was doing a last check I realized I had left out the shortening.  OH NO!   What was I to do?

Well I told Mama what I had done.  She picked up a tablespoon and added 5 tablespoon of shortening to the batter.  She told me to mix it real good.   However, she was not sure that it would mix good now.  If you know anything about baking you always mix or beat the shortening with the sugar and then add the eggs, then flour and the flavoring.  Since I had not started out properly the mixture was not as it should be to come out right.

I had already preheated the oven.  So I poured the batter into the cake pan.  It looked alright to me and I thought I had mixed the batter more than enough to have all the ingredients thoroughly combined.  The timer was set and now the clean-up and wait for the delicious cake to come out of the oven.

You know there are times in our lives that we think a short cut will be just as good as the long way around any given thing or situation.   Now, I had not intended to take any kind of short cut.  It was just that I had not looked at the instructions carefully enough.  Had I taken the time to review the ingredients as I went along this mistake would not have been made.

In cooking you may make some mistakes but as a lady told me one time…If you find a new recipe and want to try it, go ahead.  If you do not like it then all you have wasted are a few ingredients.  I have found that to be some good advice in life.  I love to try new recipes.  Sometimes you find a good recipe that becomes a favorite.  Then again you try something that is not suitable to you taste buds.  

Now, back to the cake.  As I turned it out of the pan there were 5 perfect cone shaped holes in the bottom of the cake.  It looked as if they were made on purpose.  The cause were the 5 lumps of shortening that had settled in the bottom of the pan.  When the cake was cut there were greasy spots around each hole.  Now this cake would not have won any contest, but we ate every last crumb. 

In life, we sometimes try to take a short cut instead of doing something in the proper order.  God will allow us to go just so far off the path He has chosen for us, and then He will direct us back.  Straying can cause heartache and pain and not produce the results God wants for us or the results we want for ourselves.  As children we learn by trial and error.  You know, “If at first you don’t succeed try, try again.”

When we allow our Heavenly Father to “direct our path” (Proverbs 3:6) the heartache and pain will not completely go away.  That is just a part of life, “but with God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27).