gateau des Anges

this is a holiday activity worth putting all of your eggs in one basket.  literally, it will take about 8 of them.  starting with advent, i wanted to have a little christmas each day, so on a random wednesday evening i decided to make a birthday cake for Jesus.  i know He's ageless, but if He were here in person, He'd be over two thousand years old our time.  that deserves some respect.  i had a recipe in my great-grandmother's handwriting for angel food cake and, being the sentimental meaning-laden person that i am, decided that "cake of the angels" was perfectly fitting for the occasion.  when it comes to baking and life in general, doing a few things well is my maxim.  and, since cooking is an art but baking is a science--which means the chemical reactions therein can go wrong--i was very exacting in following her instructions.  as i baked i thought about her life and how much i would have liked to spend more time with her here.  she lived to be 104 and i remember on her birthday five years before that she had sat up and declared, "i'm not 99!"  rather than from confusion, which i thought at the time, i think she was coming from reality.  a reality that i understand more and more--she didn't feel 99.  perhaps her spunk and light heartedness leant her what i feel, that i'm a 12 year old trapped inside a 39 year old body. so i sifted and measured and waited.  here's her recipe:

Angel Food
1 cup egg whites (8-10 eggs)
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 c. cake flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. water
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. lemon flavor
1/2 tsp. vanilla

sift flour and sugar seperately four times.  measure each after final sifting.  add salt, water, and flavoring when egg whites are half-beaten.  add cream of tartar.  continue beating until egg whites hold their shape.  fold in sugar 1/4 at a time.  then fold in flour 1/4 at a time.  bake in slow oven (325) for 50 to 60 min. 

i topped it with a strawberry-lemon sauce, 3 candles and singing.

some books to go along with this recipe nicely?  mfk fisher's "love in a dish" and "the table comes first" by adam gopnik.