It’s More Than Just Cake

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It’s More Than Just Cake
By Bernadette A. Moyer

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There is a big difference between a box cake and a made from scratch cake, each cake is typically created with love. Food is love. Most people that bake believe that, they make food not just to eat but to satisfy that desire to make and to create. There is so much satisfaction that comes from making food and even more satisfaction when it is well received and appreciated.

Making a scratch cake is labor intensive, it takes time and it takes more effort and typically it shows in the finished product. People that know, know, they can taste the difference between a box cake mix and one that is created from adding all your own fresh ingredients.

My two favorite scratch cake recipes are the classic Hershey Chocolate cake that includes 11 ingredients and the other a simple Hot Milk Sponge cake. Both cakes stay fresher longer than any box cake I have ever made and they taste so much better too. It is always worth the effort.

Thinking about cake making and the big scheme of life also made me think about effort and where and how we choose to devote our time. We don’t bake a cake with a desire for it to fall and fail. We don’t choose to spend our time and efforts and have an outcome of failure. If we knew we were headed toward failure we would change course, we would try again or we would try something new. We would do things differently. If we knew for certain that the outcome would be failure, we may not even try at all.

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” Napoleon Hill

There is a big difference from thinking about a task as opposed to actually doing that task. Buying a cake at the bakery and making a homemade cake will have the same desired results if the goal is merely to show up with a cake in hand. But the experience and knowledge from making it and creating it for ourselves will be lost. And even when the outcome is failure, we will have learned something during the efforts and the process.

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With cake, everyone has an opinion, an idea of how it should be and a favorite. People may love cake but they know which cake they prefer and they certainly do have their favorites. The desire to create is an act of love, pure and simple. And just like in life, the efforts that we may bring and that we put forward show itself in the final analysis and final product.

Happy cake baking … Happy efforts … Happy life …

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer

Books by Bernadette A. Moyer on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Chocolate Cake and the Gym

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Chocolate Cake and the Gym
By Bernadette A. Moyer

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Chocolate cake and the gym is pretty much my life where I enjoy moving from the sweet melty chocolate cake experience to the hot sweaty and salty work out experience at the gym. It is one extreme to the other and plenty of good and bad stuff in the middle.

Like life it can be sweet and easy or hard and rough. But it is also a testament to a rich and full life filled with a variety of experiences. Maybe the chocolate cake makes the gym more tolerable? Or does the gym make the chocolate cake more worthy of consumption?

Yesterday I literally baked a pumpkin pie and chocolate chip/walnut cookies before I headed out to the gym for an hour swim and a 15-minute sauna. I met my steps goal with more than 10,000 steps and I enjoyed two cookies! It felt great! It felt like balance! It felt rich!

In the deeper sense when life is tough and we are experiencing a rough patch we need to remind ourselves that whatever it is, it is only one part of the total picture. Nothing is all good or all bad.

“The very purpose of life is happiness, which is sustained by hope. We have no guarantee about the future, but we exist in the hope of something better. Hope means keeping going, thinking “I can do this.” It brings inner strength, self-confidence, the ability to do whatever we do honestly, truthfully and transparently.” – Dalai Lama

More and more I try to enjoy the extremes in life the rich experience of a really fierce workout at the gym along with that full sensory experience of enjoying a piece of homemade chocolate cake.

Now for the really serious stuff, the best chocolate cake by far is the Classic Hershey cocoa cake. It includes 11 ingredients and certainly is a lot more work than a box cake but it stays moist long and is so good it really does not need any icing. Powdered sugar on top looks great; add some sliced berries and if that cake isn’t enough chocolate for you, the Hershey cocoa cans also include their chocolate icing recipe too. It’s really good and really rich.

What does a rich life look like for you?
What does it include?
Where do you draw a balance?
What do you work toward?

How do you treat yourself?

“None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after- thought. Eat the delicious food. Walk in the sunshine. Jump in the ocean. Say the truth that you’re carrying around in your heart like a hidden treasure. Be silly. Be kind. Be weird. There’s no time for anything else.” Richard Gere

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer

Books by Bernadette A Moyer on Amazon and Barnes and Noble