5 Golden Rings

When I was in high school Home Ec class back in the day, I was introduced to a recipe for poppyseed cake that was unlike anything I'd ever had before. Instead of lemon flavored, it was almond flavored, and it had an orange glaze. It was incredible. We started making it at home and it quickly became my favorite cake. I've been making it ever since. I took dozens and dozens of batches to the law firm where I worked for 13 years. Baird has taken dozens more into his office around Christmas time as a little something special for those in his department. And many more batches have found their way into Irving School over the past nine years.

When I make a batch for just my family, I usually bake it in a loaf pan. At Christmas time I turn batches of poppyseed cake into mini bundt cakes, glaze them, wrap them in colored Seran Wrap, tie a ribbon around them, and add a cute little Christmas tag. This project tends to take over my entire kitchen. By the time the kids come home from school there are little poppyseed cakes everywhere, in various stages of development.

This year I needed to make at least six batches of poppyseed cake in order to get everyone (work, school, friends, family) covered. I made three batches today. As I was glazing the cakes, setting them into pans to dry a bit before wrapping them, it occurred to me that these little cakes look like five golden rings. And it's the fifth day of Christmas. How cute is that?!