Was it the recipe or the pan that made the delicious chocolate cake?

As we get closer to Mother’s Day, my thoughts turn more and more to the different and wonderful things my Mother did for our family.

My mother was an excellent cook. No matter how many of us we had sitting around our huge dining table, there was plenty of wonderful food for the whole family. We were happy and always had more than enough for food, clothes and love for everyone because Mom loved to bake! Cakes, pies, cookies, pastries, you name it, she made them and they were all wonderful!

Do you remember watching your Mother make a cake or pie, and did you know that your Mother made the best cake or pie in the whole world? I make! Because my Mother did the best in the whole world! I have only found an apple pie that is near my mother!

One of my family’s favorites was their chocolate cake. Mom made the best chocolate cake with the richest fudge frosting you could imagine. This cake was the most requested dessert, and we knew it was a special occasion or that we were particularly good when we ate this cake.

We thought the reason it was the best was that it had a “special” cake pan just for this particular cake. He had many cake pans, but he only used this one for this particular chocolate cake. So because it was the only cake this pan was used for, that’s why it was so good! It made sense to us.

So when mom died, my brother and sisters wanted this “special” cake pan and cake recipe. To keep the peace and memory alive, I started the tradition of giving the pan to each of my brothers for six months. In six months they needed to personally return the cake pan to the next brother on the list. We all tried to make the cake in the “special” pan but for some reason it was never as good as we all remembered.

Now I have the memories of mom making the best chocolate cake in a very special mold. But it wasn’t the pan that made the cake so special! It had to be the special extra ingredient not mentioned in the recipe: a heaping tablespoon full of LOVE. I still have the pan, but I stopped making the cake, it just wasn’t the same!