bake-off

So it's time for spice cake, a family recipe, from grandmother

to my mother to me. When I was young I hated it.

Raisins, nutmeg, pecans weren't my food groups.

Now I actually don't mind it. It's eggless, butterless- dense!

Not too sweet. Maybe a good kind of cake

for the darkening days. I'm listening to lots

of medieval Christmas tunes.

You can feel the cold seep into the castle.

The dark skies fold down around the village fires.

Why they sing and tell stories- to push back the winter.

Here's the spice cake - from my old spiral notebook

where I keep odd scraps of this-and-that recipes.