If I were to join in communion with you, to commune with you, to communicate with you, I would do so over a cup of raspberry leaf-mint tea and a piece of Celebration Carob Cake (so called because it was the first cake I baked after the birth of my last child).
Celebration Carob Cake
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sifted unbleached white flour
½ cup carob powder
2 tspns. baking powder*
¾ cup oil
½ cup orange juice
½ cup water
½ cup chopped cashews
2 eggs
Blend dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, oil, juice and water. Beat until well-blended — about 4 minutes with a mixer or 400 strokes by hand. Turn into a small, well-greased and lightly floured loaf pan or two 1 lb. coffee cans. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until top springs back at touch.
To communicate with another adult is difficult enough, but to try to explain snow to a child who still has no words with which to conceptualize is just impossible. And with a newborn words are forgotten — only the warmth of nestling in loving arms can communicate to such fresh souls. Yet that is a universal language isn’t it, even for tarnished souls?
When I get tired of using words to communicate with 2-year-old Rebecca — or 38-year-old David — I offer them this edible substitute.
The Medium-Is-The-Message Apple Cake
2 apples, peeled, cored & diced
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup honey
1 tspn. cinnamon
¼ tspn. ginger
¼ tspn. salt
½ cup raisins
⅓ cup oil
1 egg beaten
1 cup unbleached white flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
1½ tspns. baking powder*
Combine apples, sugar and honey in a large bowl; let stand 10 minutes. Add oil and egg and blend. Combine dry ingredients and add to apple mixture, blending well. Stir in raisins. Pour into a greased 1 lb. coffee can and bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until done. Let cool ten minutes before removing from can.
*There is a baking powder available at health food stores that contains no sodium bicarbonate, aluminum, or other nasty ingredients.
Does anyone read this column?
Please communicate.
