All Icing and No Cake

I like to bake. If you know me at all you can't get away from knowing that. I'm passionate about homemade cake - it's so much better than shop bought and I get disappointed frankly if I am promised homemade cake and I get shop bought. Occasionally I will buy cake, but only out of desperation or if it's something like doughnuts, which I really can't make well (I have tried). Perhaps I am a bit of a cake snob. 

When I go to a coffee shop or an event or something else, the quality of the cake is key. Sometimes the cake promises much - it's beautifully iced - it sits majestic on the cake stand and it shines with a beauty that invites consumption. 

But then you eat it and it tastes a bit like iced not properly set yet concrete. You smile and you eat, pour on the cream, gulp down the tea, perhaps put it in the microwave, but you're left disappointed like when you eat a McDonalds - alright at the time, but the feeling of 'why did I go there?' sits heavily in the stomach for a while. 

But there is something worse than that. 

Cupcakes. 

Some of them balance the icing and sponge beautifully and are a pleasure to eat. The sweet and the soft sit together like a newly married couple who are beginning life together. You get caught up in the joy of the perfect combination, and sit in the moment for a while. 

But that's not all cupcakes. Cupcakes have a reputation for having a tower of icing, a sickly, sweet, sugary cone rising up from a cake which seems to be only there as a poor foundation to be left behind when the icing gets too much. 

More icing than cake.....

And then there's the celebration cakes that come with a sign that says 'caution do not eat' because behind the icing is a carefully carved block of polystyrene that instead of satisfying would get caught in your teeth. 

All icing and no cake..... 

What looks most attractive is actually most disappointing because without the depth of good cake we only get the idea of cake and where there is no cake there's no long term satisfaction. Icing is good, but not on its own. 

When the prophet Samuel anoints David to be King - youngest child who was looked over by his brothers - God tells him to pass over the older, stronger, taller, more handsome brothers with these words in 1 Samuel 16:7.

"Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart". 

As people we are likely to do just that - to look at the outward appearance - the pretty icing, the immaculately decorated cake, the well dressed celebrity preacher, the one who bigs themselves up with stories of their own wonderfulness - and being impressed by what we see, we take a huge bite..... and it's only when our teeth come together and ache with the intensity of the sugar that we realise there was no depth, no cake in what we've chosen to consume. 

But what Samuel is told to do is to look deeper - it's not the icing on the outside that counts, not the shininess in all it's shiny glory, but it's the quality and depth of the heart inside that matters - and that's how God calls, that's where God works, that's where love is found, where the cake is light and melts in your mouth, not overfaced by sickly icing, but perfectly formed - and in that heart there is something beautiful to be found. 

And when we make cake? It's the big picture that matters - coating it with edible glitter doesn't make it taste good, but slowly but surely following a recipe, tweaking and changing as we examine the texture, deeply rooted in the a quality combination of ingredients, balancing the icing with the depth of the cake, that's what makes the heart of the cake good. 

That's what makes good church - it's the big picture that matters - coating it with a sheen of perfection doesn't make it taste good, but slowly but surely building from the inside, tweaking and changing as we examine the terrain, deeply rooted in Christ, balancing the icing with the depth of the cake, that's what makes the heart of the church good.

All icing and no cake is not cake. 

Baptist Cake.... as you do

A couple of weeks ago in the Baptist Collaboration group on facebook where we discuss all things Baptist and all other things to... well when I say we, I'm normally lingering in the background listening in. I'm one of them... a lurker.... 

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago in that group someone asked what would Baptist cake look like....? All sorts of suggestions came in and I considered getting involved considering I love being Baptist and I like all things cake.... but I didn't... but then someone (no names!) then tagged me into the conversation as someone who knows.... 

Not to avoid a challenge when it comes to cake baking, I decided to take up the challenge to come up with the ultimate in Baptist cakes. I wanted to combine this with my habit of making fairy cakes that taste a bit like sweets.... (although one of the cakes is not a sweet, but hey ho...).  

Now I am one of those Baptists who loves what unites us - our Declaration of Principle, which is at the bottom of this post. There are some people who get a bit embarrassed by it and the fact that we have to say we love it when we get ordained.... but I love it... it's part of the reason I'm excited to say I am Baptist. It's three things that to be a member of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and to say it's 'our union' that you kind of have to agree with. As this is what is common to all of my brand of Baptists then I decided to base the cakes around this. You might call me weird or a bit of a geek... but this is me.... Here goes.....

Baptist Cakes 1 - Revels Cakes

Revels are like the Russian Roulette of chocolates... you never know quite what you are going to get.. (although it's got easier because they got rid of the peanuts and made them different shapes) but one thing unites them - chocolate!

It's the same with Baptist Churches. The first part of the Declaration of Principle says that Jesus is the sole and absolute authority in all matters of faith and practice (like the chocolate), as revealed in scripture which is interpreted with the help of the Holy Spirit by the local church.  

Every Baptist church is different because we all have slightly different ways of doing stuff - but there is one thing that unites us - that's that we can say Jesus is Lord.... or wear chocolate, like the revels. 

Baptist Cakes 2 - Coffee Drizzle

Drizzle was not the most popular choice on Baptist collaboration -we're called Baptist because we like to get wet and the argument was drizzle is a bit pathetic - however if you drizzle properly and make a massive mess as I do you get very wet...... that's why it's my choice! The second part of the Declaration of Principle is about baptism - that baptism is for believers, by full immersion, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

I chose coffee drizzle - not a sweet, but a drink..... because I know I am not alive without that first cup of coffee in the morning.... and baptism is about declaring publicly that we are alive in Jesus.... Coffee changes me... so does faith. 

Baptist Cakes 3 - Sherbet Fountains

I love sherbet fountains - the way they explode, the taste of the liquorice - the way they get everywhere. The third part of the Declaration of Principle says that it is every believers' responsibility to go out and tell the world about about Jesus - to explode with the good news like Sherbet and get everywhere. I added stars because shining like stars is part of that - twinkling brightly..... 

So there you go.... Baptist cake. Feel free to disagree as that's a very Baptist thing to do.

Lovely. 

Declaration of Principle

The Basis of the Baptist Union is:

1. That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the HolyScriptures, and that each Church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer His laws.

2. That Christian Baptism is the immersion in water into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of those who have professed repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who 'died for our sins according to the Scriptures; was buried, and rose again the third day'.

3. That it is the duty of every disciple to bear personal witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to take part in the evangelisation of the world.

From 

http://www.baptist.org.uk/Groups/220595/Declaration_of_Principle.aspx

Cake and Slow Church. Slow Cake. Cake Church.

I've just got back from the North West Baptist Association ministers conference and during it we had something called '7 on 7' - 7 people speaking about something they are passionate about for 7 minutes. It was good..... and I was one of the seven people and I said I would put up my talk on my blog - so here goes - with a few changes so it makes sense! 

If you spend any time with me you might be able to guess what I am passionate about. It appears that people on facebook with their random sharing of anything to do with shoes and anything to do with maths think they know what I am passionate about. I do like shoes and I do like maths. I even got asymptotes in my sermon on Sunday on Ephesians 6……

However, it’s not until you spend time with me you realise that it’s not all about those shoes or all about that maths…..

If you have spent any time with me in the last year or so there are two things I have probably done….

First, is offer you cake. I have a thing about cake. Not because I like eating it (although, I admit, there are times I do) but because it's an experience. I am not a massive fan of shop bought cakes and when someone brings shop bought cake when they have offered to make cake I have a secret intense disappointment. I am passionate about the homemade variety. This is the variety that has had time to be created. This is the variety that speaks of love and of care. This is the variety that makes me stop and savour.

The thing about cake for me is not in the eating, but it’s in the making. And making is not just about reading and looking. If you just read and follow a recipe without playing with any other senses the cake may be nice, but it’s not the same. I’m sorry.

The first thing I do when creating cake is to wander around and dream. Even if I am going back to a tried and tested recipe that dreaming and imagining is still there. I might have googled or searched books, but the dreaming (often in the car on the way home from college) is always there. This cake I am making – I need to really believe in.

The second thing I do is make the cake. With scales. I measure….. then I taste, then I feel, then I smell….. then I add…. (milk often actually is the magic ingredient). Then I put it in the oven and let it be. Let it rest as it grows, moves, breathes…..

The final thing I do is I listen. The cakes talk.

So.... now you think I am nuts. But, when you listen to sponge cakes baking they speak, and when they stop speaking they’re ready. It’s not about the time stated in the recipe book, it’s about when the cakes tell you they’re ready. You can hear it. You can feel it. Taste and see. And……

The second thing I may have mentioned if you have spent time with me,  is how you need to investigate Slow Church. Slow Church is church like cake baking and eating. Slow Church is a movement about cultivating community in the patient way of Christ. Slow church is inspired by the International slow food movement.

The slow food movement is a movement that goes against the grain of fast food…. Of buy and eat fast. Of lunch hours and business meetings. Of hour long lunchtime ministers meetings (let’s kill two birds with one stone ministers meetings). Of the rush from one meeting to the next. Of turning the occasional times we have traditionally just hung out with others from church to week by week, slow, slow, patient, focussed community building. The slow food movement is dedicated to the enjoyment and production of local food and wine, the preservation of food traditions, and  the promoting of pleasures of conviviality – from the Latin word for feast, which literally means ‘to live with’. The slow food movement challenges us as churches to ask questions about the ground our faith communities have given over to the cult of speed and challenges us to rethink the ways in which we share life together in our church communities. It challenges our ‘one size fits all’ church and discipleship models and calls for quality, local centred journeys forward, breathing and walking together in Christ’s way.

Slow Church is the challenge to be, faithfully and well, the embodiment of Christ in a particular place over time. Slow church speaks of the type of community where people are invited to hang out for a while and taste and see that the Lord is good.

Cake and Slow Church. Slow Cake. Cake Church. That’s what I am passionate about.