In a world always intent on mad rushing about, during the holidays and all times in-between, this post celebrates the stubbornly slow.
To honor the terms of a bet I once lost with a dear friend, I baked a cake in her enchanted Mumbai home with an expansive view of the world. We had a few of her famous margaritas. We talked a whole lot, laughed even more, and partook of more of the mouth-watering delicacies emerging from her kitchens than ever seemed possible. We finished with The Cake, alongside her tiramisu. It was a full evening of happy (and slightly boozy) sweetness.
When she asked for the recipe, I promised to send it to her — a memento of the time we spent together, far more than just instructions for another layer cake. But the rushing about of workaday life intervened, and swept me off to other shores. When I returned at last, nearly 9 months had gone by. She’d stopped asking. She’d even stopped hinting. It would have been easier just to hammer out instructions on a keyboard.
But no, I thought, stubbornly. No. If 9 months can birth a baby, then it was time for some honest laboring. The three pages in this post are the result: a story of an enchanted evening, a memento of it, a recipe for classic carrot cake, and a comment on the deliciousness of being stubbornly slow.
For the higher resolution images to print out, click on the pics–they’ll take you to flickr. Or just get the 3 pages here:
- Classic Carrot Cake page 1: How it all started
- Classic Carrot Cake page 2: The baking begins
- Classic Carrot Cake page 3: Cake at last
& come join the evening with us as 2017 ends and a new year begins, and as I book tickets for Mumbai once more for another evening and another cake.
