Angel Food Cake

I just removed an angel food cake from the oven.  The first angel food cake I have made in over three decades.  This one turned out as badly as the others.  Now you know why I don't bake angel food cakes.  The cake was heavy and tough as shoe leather.  That may be because it was slightly burned or it just might be because the cake mix had been sitting forlornly in my kitchen cabinets for at least two years, maybe three.

Angel Food cake has a way of bringing back fond memories of my maternal grandmother like nothing else.  Grandma made the best angel food cake from scratch, not a mix like mine.  The cake was light and airy but it wasn't the cake that was special.  No it was the mile high pink fluffy icing made with white Karo syrup whipped into heavenly pink clouds.  She always made her angel food cake with pink fluffy icing for the annual church picnic.  Sue and I spent a week each year with Aunt Virginia who lived next door to Grandma.  Our week was always the week of vacation bible school.  We loved going to vacation bible school, not because we were learning the  joys of being a Christian but because we had new friends to play with.  Aunt Virginia and Uncle Kenny had no children when we were small and all though we loved them we wanted children to play with when we visited.  Following the conclusion of a week of bible school the Chambersburg Christian Church held their annual picnic.  It was always a glorious celebration of fellowship and lots of good food.  I had never seen so much food and everything was luscious.  Still, the hit of the picnic was Grandma's pink fluffy angel food cake.

Grandma has been dead for over 40 years now.  I cherish my memories of time spent with her.  Children take for granted the love showered on them by their grandparents.  Now that I am a grandmother I realize this and regret that I didn't tell my grandmother how very much I loved her.  I won't make the same mistake with my children and grandchildren.  They are going to hear about my for them whether they want to or not.