Friday 25 May 2012

Faith and Cheesecake

A blog about faith and cheesecake? An odd combination some might say.

Well, not if you know me. I love all food and and have a passion for  feeding friends with towering slabs of blueberry studded, creamy-like-a-Milkybar cheesecake, and am currently trialling a dizzying array of new flavours (Lemon and Gingernut anyone?) 

As I write this post my freshly whipped Madagascan Vanilla & Oreo cheesecake is chilling in the fridge, really to furnish the counter of one of South London's finest coffee emporium tomorrow morning. Only thing is that the first - and only - time that I made it before, the bugger didn't actually set. The flavour was amazing but you could have drunk it through a straw. I'm praying this one goes better.

Praying! What a seamless transition to Another Thing I Get Really Excited About : Faith. Not just my own, but other people's. Spirituality, religion, belief systems, stuff about God and ways of looking at the world. I've spent the last decade working in interfaith relations, a.k.a. encouraging people of different religions to understand, rather than kill/ bitch about, each other. I figure it's time I started putting some of my ponderings down on paper (of sorts), along with food-related titbits, so my little collection of brain cells have more room to dash around my noggin thinking up new recipes and ways to bring about world peace. 



2 comments:

  1. I look forward to trying these cheesecakes!

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  2. Lovely comment from Kenneth:


    'Well done, Hannah - a fun, lively and thought-provoking (not to mention mouth-watering) blog !

    Connections between faith and cheesecakes ? Not obvious, but there's quite a few when you reflect on it ....

    (1) as one of your Facebook friends commented, cheesecakes are wonderful creations. Creamy, cheesy, fruity, crumbly - need I go on ? A faith point is that they are created by humans, though God provides the basic ingredients. People are made in the image of God: God is a creator, and so are we. We are sort of mini-creators in the image of God: God makes oceans, animals and weather; while we make pop songs, gardens and cheesecakes ....

    (2) faith involves trying and developing - mainly to become a better (and more godly) person, and to go good things. Not always succeeding, Quite a few stumbles. But you can improve and develop gradually, with the help of God, others and yourself - in perhaps growing in patience, courage, faithfulness or other spiritual virtues. Similarly with cheesecakes. Am sure the recipes don't always work first time. But if you keep trying, they get better. Eventually, you may totally get the knack of doing a type of cheesecake and be churning them out easily (to the delight of your friends and customers).

    (3) cheesecakes have a light creamy top and a crunchy heavy bottom. A bit like the life of faith. You have the airy, uplifting experiences of joy and connection; but you also need a solid basis of prayer, study, worshipping with others. You need the biscuit base to support the airy cream; and a mix of the two tastes best: biscuit base alone is a bit cereal-y and cream top alone would be too milky. Just like living by faith: you need the occasional moment of spiritual enlightenment, but also the everyday round of ordinary things like work schedules and doing the chores. It all works best when it is mixed together.'

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