When the Cake Falls

For me, part of any holiday preparation involves getting into the culinary spirit as well. Elul, of course, makes me think of honey cake, apples, and round challah.

So today I tested a new honey cake recipe. (Is it really fair to say it's new if I've never made honey cake before? Well, it's new to me.)

I made this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, which is really from Marcy Goldman's great cookbook.

Except it didn't quite come out the way I hoped it would.
The middles of all the cakes fell in.

And then they stuck to the pan when I flipped them out.

So they were messed up on the bottom AND the top. 
But the upside? It tasted delicious.

Sometimes things don't go quite the way we've planned.
Life is unpredictable. Sometimes the middle falls in.

We work hard during this month to get it all right...we work hard to right our wrongs and fix our mistakes.

Sometimes it's not pretty.

But at the end...when we worked hard and spent the time in teshuvah and personal growth....
it tastes delicious.

So that's what I'm aiming for this month.
How about you? Share your Elul hopes here...