I’m still not sure I’ve got it exactly right.
Auntie’s recipe for tea cakes.
Mama didn’t make many desserts, and almost never made cookies. But, occasionally she did get out the flour and ingredients for tea cakes and made them to Daddy’s delight.
Mama was brought up by her father’s sister, Auntie, as she called her. Auntie had an old, worn-out Watkins Cook Book, that she passed down to Mama. I’m not sure she followed a recipe when she made her famous tea cakes, though.
Getting out the recipe, Mama started the process of mixing the batter for the tea cakes. However, I think she basically made them from memory and from her own interpretation of what went in them and the amounts.
Sometimes they were fluffy and sometimes thin and crunchy, but they always tasted delicious.
As I grew up, it became my turn to make tea cakes. The recipe, stained where baking fingers had turned pages, was gotten out and I was initiated into the tradition of making the Southern cookies.
Since then, I have found many different recipes for tea cakes and have tried several of them. Although most of the cookies are good, it has been hard for me to duplicate the exact cookie my mama made when she got in a baking mood.
I’ve talked with different ladies who have shared that they have the recipes of family members or friends, and that although they follow the directions exactly, the result doesn’t seem exactly the same or the taste is not just like the original. Some have even watched the process of making the recipe, and tried to follow it exactly, but still have trouble duplicating it.
What is the secret ingredient in someone’s cooking? A dash of this, a smidgen of that? Or an indescribable quality of love and knowing just exactly when enough is enough and not to add anything more?
Jesus talked about leaven, or yeast, in the Bible. Sometimes, leaven was good and sometimes bad. If you have made yeast bread, or used yeast in a recipe, you know how it changes the dough. A small amount of yeast will permeate a large amount of flour mixture and cause it to rise and double. It becomes part of the dough.
Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 16:6, “Be careful. Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
The Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and confronted him; and in this case, they had asked him for a miracle to prove He was the Son of God.
Jesus is warning against the wrong beliefs of the Pharisees and Sadducees. A small amount of disbelief, or wrong belief, can spread and infect a person’s whole life and spiritual life.
The Bible gives us the true recipe for salvation, and who Jesus is. We can’t add or take away from it. It’s perfect.
