Dearest Kindred,

Open the door and come inside, come in from the cold and into the warmth of my house. Be greeted with the warmth and smell of warm sweet cake. I will place a clean, fresh white cooking apron on you. 

Will you come and get your hands dirty with me? Come and mix some flour with me, I promise laughter as you see flour on my face and in my hair. Come and be messy, come and create. 

My child, why did your heart sink when I placed the thin flat cake from the oven on the table? It is only the base, the foundation, a layer…I am far from done with you my sweet.

Now that you are here, we can add the flavour, because the choice is yours. I have every flavour and every tool for the cake designed and crafted, mixed and moulded just so. Will it be blueberries? Chocolate? Vanilla bean? Apricots? Lemons? Strawberries I hear you say…and a wonderful choice at that.

Here it is dear child, a bowl filled to the brim with strawberries. When you open your hands to take them from my hands, you noticed the scars on my own. Child instead of blood that once stained them, there is a stain red of strawberries, I picked them for you, individually, carefully, not a seed missing, not a blemish or mark; washed clean and ready for you. The very same love that once spilled blood is the same love that lovingly picks and brings you all good things.

I will show you how to use them to make a layer, a jam. All mixed together with the right ingredients, it is ready to spread on the base, the layer. Child I have designed you just so, like a cake with many ingredients that work perfectly together, like a multi-layered masterpiece under the surface of the icing and a perfect artwork on the outside.

I hear your heart when you doubt at what you see, when you feel nothing or so little is there. To look and see a plain thin square vanilla and jam cake is to see things through your eyes. I smile so big and wide when you say, “I am nothing but a cookie cutter square”.  Slowly rolling from the edges of the thin layer, I made for you a giant Jam scroll, you see, a square can be a spiral too… I can make something from nothing; it is my joy to do so - a bakers delight. If you think this season is flat and dull, think again!

There will be times your produce and cake will look different, each has it’s own time and season. From the shape, the flavour and recipe. Each season will produce ingredients, bring them to my house and let me bake with you. Let us put it in the oven together, there is always a place for something to be warmed, to grow in the oven, don’t leave it out in the cold. 

There is a perfect timing for everything, like baked goods; too early from the heat, it is not cooked through, too long and it is burnt. Yet do not fear these things or worry, for I have created the recipe; In fact, I am. I am the heat, the raising agent, the flavour, the colour, the substance, the foundation and the mould that holds it together. My promise child, if you bake with me I will never miss a thing!