By: Patricia Francis Good
Definition of Shatter (verb)
- Smash into pieces: to break suddenly into many small brittle pieces, or cause something to break in this way
- Destroy hope or belief: to destroy something that somebody believed in/hoped for
- Shock somebody: to shock and distress somebody badly
Everybody has shattering experiences in their lives. I’ve had my share. This particular year of 2012 I got very sick and lost my job. That shattered me to my core. And then one night, something happened that made me re-think the word “shatter”. Here’s my story…
The dome of my glass cake stand had covered many of my home-made sweets in its day. Proudly displaying its bounty, the cake stand stood on my counter for years and years. It was elegant and beautiful on the counter. I always enjoyed dressing it up with some new, sweet delight that glistened through the clear glass cake dome.
To distract myself from the pain and sorrow of my new illness, losing my job and selling our home, I read a book called “Delicious” written by Ruth Reichl . The author talked on and on about making this one fantastic cake recipe. In the last chapter all the ingredients were listed, with the baking instructions. I copied it down and had a friend buy me all the ingredients. In a flash of energy, I made the cake. The warmth and aroma of freshly ground cinnamon, cardamom and cloves filled our home. It was so soothing to my soul. I lovingly put the cake in the stand and covered it with the glass dome and just looked at the beauty of it and savored the smell.
That night I fell asleep on the couch. I vaguely heard my husband get up around midnight and go into the kitchen. I knew he would make a bee line for that cake, and I smiled. But, that was where my peace ended. The next thing I heard was the shattering of glass … big, bold sounds that jarred my whole body. He had lifted the cake dome and put it on its side on the counter and left the room. The cake dome took one big roll and went crashing into a million pieces all over the kitchen floor. Entering the room, I found the floor covered with broken glass and even more dangerous, glass dust. I found a broom and something to put the broken pieces in and began cleaning up. However, the stress was making me dizzy and ill. I prayed, dear God, please help me now. I got up as much of the glass as I could, then swept the rest under the cabinets. This problem would have to be solved in the morning by someone else. I was running out of abilities to cope with shattered glass. I turned to the counter where the cake was still sitting on the cake stand. It had been untouched by the accident. When the glass dome broke on the floor, it was well below the counter. The cake was just fine. I sliced it and put the pieces into a new container. In the morning, I called my sweet friend and housekeeper, Magda who came immediately and cleaned up all the glass left on the floor. I thought to myself, there is something I need to learn from this.
So, here is my lesson:
When my world shatters, I need to remember it’s just like the shattered cake dome that covered the delicious cake. After the shattering happens in my life of any kind of loss…there still remains something like cake…delicious cake…best ever cake…And even though I lived on without a cake dome, and I missed that cake dome, I did live on … just like the cake survived that night. And, I do have the only cake recipe that calls for a “heart full of love” as the first ingredient.
Would you like a piece?
SHATTER CAKE RECIPE
Ingredients:
- Heart full of love!
- Whole black peppercorns
- Whole cloves
- Whole cardamom
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 & 1/2 sticks (6 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large pieces fresh ginger root (1/4 cup, tightly packed, when finely grated)
- Zest from 2 to 3 oranges (1 & 1/2 teaspoons finely grated)
CAKE DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 6-cup Bundt pan.
- Grind peppercorns, cloves, and cardamom and measure out 1/4 teaspoon of each.
- Grind cinnamon stick and measure out a teaspoon.
- Whisk the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in a small bowl.
- In another small bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolk into the sour cream. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer until the mixture is light, fluffy, and almost white. This should take about 3 minutes.
- Grate the ginger root – this is a lot of ginger – and the orange zest. Add them to the butter/sugar mixture.
- Beat the flour mixture and the egg mixture, alternating between the two, into the butter until each addition is incorporated. The batter should be as luxurious as mousse.
- Spoon batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes, until cake is golden and a wooden skewer comes out clean.
Remove to a rack and cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
SOAK:
- 1/2 cup bourbon
- 1 & 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- While the cake cools in its pan, simmer the bourbon and the sugar in a small pot for about 4 minutes. It should reduce to about 1/3 cup.
- While the cake is still in the pan, brush half the bourbon mixture onto its exposed surface (the bottom of the cake) with a pastry brush. Let the syrup soak in for a few minutes, then turn the cake out onto a rack.
- Gently brush the remaining mixture all over the cake.
GLAZE:
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted or put through a strainer
- 5 teaspoons orange juice
Once the cake is cooled, mix the sugar with the orange juice and either drizzle the glaze randomly over the cake or put it into a squeeze bottle and do a controlled drizzle.
INSPIRATION:
AND SOMETIMES AGAINST ALL ODDS, AGAINST ALL LOGIC, WE STILL HOPE.
– UNKNOWN