Tags
apple pie, café society, chocolate cake, Epiphany's cake, lemon meringue pie, mother, seasons, WordPress
This subject was suggested by WordPress. It is a fine topic. So I have chosen to write a few words on this delicious subject. I hope this post will be therapeutic.
Cake or pie? Well, it depends!
Given that I have just finished breakfast, at the moment, I am not hungry. However, if I were, I would choose pie.
We are in North-America and, during the fall, pies are a favourite. My preference is for apple pie. But when pumpkins are on the stands, I eat pumpkin pie. But, this Christmas day, I’m dreaming, I hope to eat a big piece of the Christmas log: a cake. However, having been the wife of a gentleman whose family lived in Yorkshire, I could easily forego a piece of the Christmas log and eat plum pudding instead. I love it.
So, my choice of pie or cake depends, to a large extent, on the season and on the Feast day of that season. Traditions are so important.
At this time of year, I eat pie.
However, when my birthday comes around, I eat cake, preferably chocolate or moka cake, gooey cake. I like cake that does not cause a major challenge to forks. I like soft cake.
When we were children, my siblings and I ate cake on January 6: Epiphany. Would you believe that our mother treated us to two Christmases? January 6 was a holiday. We always returned to school after, never before, January 6 and, on that day, one of the four children would be king or queen.
Mother would insert a bean in the cake and the person who was served the piece that contained the bean was crowned. It was a homemade crown, but never was a crown worn with such pride as Epiphany’s crown. As well, on the morning of January 6, there were gifts under the tree. It was truly a second Christmas.
As you have guessed by now, my mother enjoyed cooking and she also enjoyed seeing our happy faces. Looking at us was always a bit of an endeavour as we were totally different from one another. There was no resemblance. No, we were not adopted.
And now comes lemon pie: lemon meringue pie. That was the joy-of-summer pie. I loved it. We loved it. Mother also made other summer pies: blueberry, cherry and other berries. Occasionally, she sent us out to pick the berries.
I still eat cake and pie, but only on special days. I am one of these persons who decided, early in life, that he or she would eat in moderation. However, for a few years, there was afternoon coffee and the occasional pastry. I am a perfect candidate for Café society and, during a few years, I joined friends in a café every afternoon. I then lived in downton Toronto. Those were happy years.
It has also occurred to me that in an earlier century, I would have my own salon and serve pie and cake to my salonniers and salonnìères. So: Bon appétit!
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October 10, 2011