Slogging Through Lent

March 25, 2009     Posted in Reality


By Carly

Let me just start out by saying that I’m not someone to be admired. I didn’t give up something agonizing for Lent, like chocolate or looove. But I did give up something that’s every bit as valuable to me: baking.

As a frantic home baker and a person who is seriously considering enrolling in culinary school for a pastry certification, baking is like my lifeblood. I tried to get rid of the baking urge right before Lent started by going on a mad baking spree—I spent an entire weekend and most of the following couple of days making huge batches of granola, cookies, muffins, and sweet breads. But it wasn’t enough! I’m now going out of my mind because I can’t bake until Easter. WHY did I choose to do this?!

I suppose I could have just taken the easy way out and given up eating sweets. I sample everything I bake, but that’s about it—if I have one cookie or half a muffin, I don’t need any more; I’m perfectly content to give my stuff away. I just want to make it. And I have had a crazy craving to make cupcakes since basically the day that Lent started. Oh, my precious cupcakes. Why do I have to wait so long to make them??? It doesn’t help that I keep looking at sites like this one all day long.

So I’m coping by lying in bed and reading books about chocolate confections and trying to learn more about baking by poring over the more technical sections of my cookbooks. Is it working? In a word, no. I want to make those cupcakes like nobody’s business. Did you know that Cake Love, the gorgeous DC branch of bakeries, has a podcast where they teach you to make Italian Meringue Buttercream icing? No? Well, I do. Did you know that the Culinary Institute of America has vlogs of students in baking and pastry courses? I do! And I am drooling.

There’s only a couple more weeks to go until Easter, though . . . right?! I can totally make it if I lock my stand mixer and my bags of flour in the closet.

Did you give up anything for Lent? How’s it going for you?

6 Comments on "Slogging Through Lent"

  1. Jillian says:
    Wed, 25th Mar 20097:11 am 

    I gave up meat and it's going terrible! All I want to do is grind up all these different meats and make them into one giant meatball. I realized that it's not that I eat copious amounts of meat; it's just that all my favorite foods just happen to include meat.

  2. Emily says:
    Wed, 25th Mar 200910:48 am 

    I gave up facebook! It's hard, but I'm doing it. My boss did yell at me today for it though.

  3. Callie says:
    Wed, 25th Mar 200911:44 am 

    I gave up baked goods too! Cupcakes, brownies, cookies, cakes, donuts…all of it. My friend and I are doing it together but it is still really tough. All we can talk about it all the cake we're going to eat on Easter!

  4. Lana says:
    Wed, 25th Mar 200912:14 pm 

    That cupcake blog you linked to is gonna be final nail in the coffin that is me wearing a bikini this summer. And I'm not even mad. Just think of how much fun you'll have in a couple weeks after not having baked for so long!

  5. Maria says:
    Wed, 25th Mar 200912:51 pm 

    I gave up swearing… I never noticed how often I swore until I gave it up.

  6. Brandi says:
    Fri, 27th Mar 20092:58 pm 

    I too gave up facebook, but not only facebook; I also stopped talking to the guy that I was pursuing. The point of Lent is not to just give up something because you have to. It is to take the time that you spent doing something you care about and devoting that time toward studying God's word. If you are just reading cooking books in your free time instead of devoting that time towards God this whole Lenten season has been pointless. If you stop thinking about how much you want to bake and put your focus towards God then you will gain so much more out of Lent. I know that I have spent so much time reading about God and it has been extremely beneficial in my relationship with God. I now know that facebook is not what life is about and that if it is meant to be between me and that guy then God will guide us to each other in the end.

    Best wishes to you.

    Brandi

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