When-Life-Gives-You-Lemons Lemon Cake

By Lucia Ferrara

Today is a brand new day! The sun is shining brightly! Springtime has come and what comes to my mind? A nice spring cake that will be as bright and cheery as the sunshine. I’m thinking of a lemon cake that is easy to put together with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry. This is perfect for unexpected company.

Sometimes life throws a lot of things at and you have to do something with them. That is a lot like this cake: we’ll throw in a bunch of different ingredients then when they are mixed together and baked they transform into a wonderfully delicious bright, really good-flavored cake. That’s why I’m calling it “When-Life-Gives-You-Lemons Lemon Cake.”

Preheat oven at 350 degrees

When-Life-Gives-You-Lemons Lemon Cake

● 1 box lemon cake mix
● 1/2 cup vegetable oil
● 2/3 cup water
● One 3.5 oz box of lemon instant pudding
● 1 tsp lemon extract
●  Zest of one lemon
● 4 eggs

Glaze

● Two cups powdered sugar
● 1/3 cup lemon juice
● 1 tsp lemon extract

Cooking and Spiritual Practice

Earlier I was telling you all about making lemonade out of lemons when life gets tough. Well, let’s face it, we all face challenges in our lives. How we deal with them makes all the difference. No one would dispute that cake is a yummy treat, but have you ever considered eating the ingredients of a cake separately? I bet not. Who wants to eat a raw egg or just flour or maybe a little bit of oil? Yuck, right? Life can be like taking cake ingredients separately. Some could be bitter, or raw or hurtful to us. But mix those ingredients together, pour in a pan and bake them and you get a yummy cake.

I was reading a devotional a couple of days ago that talked about facing tough times. We know that life has its disappointments, suffering, pains and hurts. And sometimes we ask God, why? That’s OK because God wants us to talk to him. The good news is that God is able to use those things for good and for his purpose in our life. So yes, bad things happen to all of us. It doesn’t matter. Just like some ingredients for a cake don’t taste very good alone, put them together and they serve a good purpose.

Now think about some good times in your life and asnwer this question: Would we really appreciate the good times as much as if we never had any tough experiences? We appreciate the sunshine even more after several days of rain, right? Or don’t we really love a nice cozy blanket when it’s bitterly cold outside? Yes, we all do. So God is able to blend the good and the bad experiences in our lives together for his purpose. Mixing the good and the bad experiences helps create a life that is meaningful, useful and tasty,

Just like this yummy lemon cake that we made here today.

Let me end by sharing a scripture verse with you, Romans 8:28; this is a beautiful promise that God gives us. “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.”

So I encourage all of you sometime this week, to bake this lemon cake, and as you do, take a little time for God, and thank him for being able to use both the tasty and the yucky experiences in life. Then share the cake and this message of hope to others.

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All the articles and videos in the Cooking and Spirituality Series can be found here.

[Lucia Ferrara, the Director of Hospitality at Precious Blood Renewal Center. Share your thoughts with Lucia or ask her questions using the form below or by sending an email to info@pbrenewalcenter.org.]

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