The Cake

I have cookbooks in my kitchen on the shelf above my desk.
The cookbooks I have there are my favorites.
However, they are not the ones I go to most of the time.
The ones I go to most of the time, I made myself.

The newspapers used to have a food section each week.
That food section included recipes.
I found many delicious recipes that way.
I have made many of those recipes through the years.

I used to subscribe to a food magazine, which I received each month for many years.
I could not possibly save all those issues.
I kept the monthly issues for one year.
I used to cut out various recipes I especially liked.

I wanted a place to keep the newspaper recipes and the magazine recipes.
A folder would not do.
I needed something that allowed me to look at the recipe in one glance.
I bought a three ring binder.

I bought plastic sleeves.
I inserted the recipes in a sleeve, back to back.
I put the sleeves in the binder.
I made my own cookbook that is easy to see and easy to wipe off, if need be.

I have a blue binder for baking.
I have two white binders for meals and appetizers.
I have a small binder that was actually the first cookbook I ever made.
The recipes in that binder go back many years.

There is one recipe on the first page that has been used over and over again.
I remember when I found it.
I remember why I was looking for the recipe in the first place.
The recipe has been shared many times.

We are not cake people.
We do not have a big sweet tooth at all.
Desserts were usually homemade cookies or brownies.
Cake with icing was something we did not enjoy.

As new parents, I knew a cake was in order.
Our little girl’s first birthday was approaching.
She had never had cake, since I never made cake for our dessert.
She loved ice cream; so I thought an ice cream cake would be best.

I remember her smiles as she ate the cake with her fingers.
She loved it.
I remember the chocolate cookie bottom with the vanilla ice cream top.
I knew it was the right cake for our little one-year-old.

I also knew that as our family grew, I was going to have to get on the cake bandwagon.
It was in the newspaper food section, soon after her first birthday, that I found it.
A recipe for Chocolate Chip Cake.
The recipe calls for sour cream, eggs, vanilla, butter, flour, sugar, baking soda, and powder.

The directions said to put half the batter in the pan.
Sprinkle half a bag of chocolate chips over the batter with some cinnamon sugar.
Repeat the layer of batter, chocolate chips, and sugar.
Bake it in the oven.

I made the cake soon after I found the recipe.
Everyone loved it.
I have made that cake more times than I can count.
It has become the Gallagher birthday cake.

That recipe has been shared over and over.
That recipe is in a cookbook in England, when my dear friend lived there for a few years.
A cookbook was compiled for a church and she asked if she could use my recipe.
Gina’s Chocolate Chip Cake is making the rounds across the pond.

However, it is not my recipe.
I did not come up with the ingredients on my own.
It was a recipe on a newspaper clipping from well over thirty years ago.
It has become mine, simply because I make it so often for my family and friends.

I just made the cake again.
That same little girl, who had ice cream cake on her first birthday, is celebrating again.
That same little girl is now a beautiful accomplished, Godly, young woman.
I celebrated her on her first birthday and every year thereafter.

She is the little girl who would come running to lick the beater whenever I baked.
As other siblings arrived, the beaters had to be shared.
The spatula was licked as well.
The bowl was wiped clean with a spoon.

That same little girl has made the cake for others.
Whenever she makes it, it is a big hit.
There are never any leftovers.
It just would not be a birthday in our family without THE cake.

However, my youngest son does not like cake at all, even this cake.
I used to make him something special that I still make for him each year.
That dessert has been his signature dessert.
We all like it as well; it always reminds us of him.

The cake recipe from the newspaper has yellowed through the years.
It is in the small, original binder.
The paper is cut with uneven edges.
I never thought that such a simple recipe would be something so special.

I can make the cake without looking at the recipe.
After all this time, it is committed to memory.
I still get out that small binder; it is tradition.
That uneven edged paper, cut out all those years ago, is a link between past and present.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;  and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;  and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8)

God’s Word contains a recipe.
The recipe is not for cake, rather it is for effectiveness in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.
If we can imagine a spiritual measuring cup, we can imagine pouring in the ingredients we need.
Each ingredient builds on the one before.

If I followed the cake recipe incorrectly the cake would be terrible.
It may not rise.
It may taste awful.
Only by following the recipe as it is written, can I guarantee the success of the cake.

God’s Word is written for us to follow.
It is not written for us to improvise.
It is not written for us to substitute another ingredient.
It is to be followed to the letter.

I am so delighted that I have this cake recipe in its original form.
The cake has brought delight to so many though the years.
How much more, will God’s Word bring delight, as we follow and obey.
God’s recipe is written for us to enjoy and to share with others.