Valentines by Candlelight
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Valentines By Candlelight… And Coffee

If you’re anything like me, you RELISH the thought of hosting a small gathering of friends. Such was the case when I offered to host a table at our church’s Valentines by Candlelight.

The Anticipation, The Planning

I could SEE the table in my mind.

Burgundy Damask tablecloth. Twin glass pitchers full of cranberry punch, pouring into stemless wine glasses (sky-blue, of course). Pale blue mints in mismatched glass candy dishes. All this surrounding a glass cake pedestal, which would proudly hold the glorious, handcrafted Black Forest Cake.

Pride Goeth Before Destruction

While it was great fun to shop for the table-hosting, it was not so fun trudging through a snowstorm to do it.

I looked forward to my day out – the thrill of the hunt, going from store to store to store. I’d even made a coffee date with a new friend, to get a little advice, since this was my first Valentines by Candlelight.

The big night was fast approaching, and trudging ain’t all it’s cracked up to be!

After endless store-hopping in the snow, I received a text from an angel named Donna. Donna asked me if I would like to sit at her table for the event. (Yes, I would love to, but I already have a table I’m hosting.)

My new friend was joining me, and I had been preparing a table for eight – just in case someone needed a place to sit. I was also doing a five-minute devotion for the program.

If I could just focus on the Black Forest Cake and the devotion, well, that would be a HUGE weight off my shoulders.

After some back and forth, YES, I WOULD sit at Donna’s table – with my friend – and I would still get to make the dessert I had been dreaming about for weeks.

So, Then, What Was The Destruction?

That Black Forest Cake.

Three split layers of chocolate sponge cake, bathed in cherry syrup, layers of cherries steeped in kirschwasser (cherry brandy), spread with kirsch-infused whipped cream, sprinkled with bittersweet chocolate curls, and studded with even more brandy-soaked cherries.

The problem? The instructions said to be generous with the cherry syrup, going edge to edge. The edges and middle were covered, but evidently not generously enough.

Dry, dry, dry.

The cherries, however, were anything BUT dry. Perhaps they had soaked far too long in their little drunken bath. And a tad bitter, to boot!

Upon slicing the cake that I had waited weeks to unveil, the assembled layers practically laughed as they slid apart.

Wheee!

Ever The Gracious Hostess

Donna politely went around to the guests at her tables, offering up slender slices of chocolate and orange cakes, while I was in tow, offering up great HUNKS of my once-stellar (in my mind) Black Forest Cake.

It was so dry, it simply refused to be cut into ladylike portions!

Donna smiled the whole time and thanked me profusely. She would NOT let me crawl under a rug over a silly cake!

I LOVE YOU, DONNA! You are a truly wonderful friend. You are elegant effervescence, and you are my newest hero! Thank you for everything, my angel.

Valentines with Coffee

One Final Note:

Today is Valentine’s Day! My Valentine and I started the day with our morning coffee and devotions! How many women can say that? (YOU, I pray!)

I am more blessed than I deserve.

Thank you, Lord, for my dear husband, Lance!


Anna

We love because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19

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