The language of Music

When I was a small child, my mother thought it would be a good idea for me to study piano. I began taking lessons every week until I was a sophmore in high school. Through this, I learned my language of love was music. I thought my teacher was too slow so I'd cheat and mark off pages that I could play and went through several books before my teacher found out. That's when I decided to stop lessons and play on my own because I knew I had enough "learning" to last a lifetime. I played piano for the high school choir, church, and even small groups. I loved my piano and even taught piano when I lived in the south.

I thought I knew everything there was about the piano, but when I started playing keyboard for a church's worship team, I was challenged to the "nth" degree and learned a whole lifetime of learning again. Being on the worship team blessed my socks off and I even met my husband while playing on the worship team. I played on this team every Sunday for about 7 years when my new husband and I decided we needed to make a change to another church. I gave up playing the keyboard for the worship team and always felt I wasn't serving up to my capacity at church. I'd often wonder what I could do to serve at church.

A new opportunity opened up for me to serve and low and behold, it was okay because I would still have a connection to the worship team at church. I know it was a long stretch, but I feel making breakfast for our worship and production teams at church is my way of being a part of the team. Music is still a big part of my language of love and whereas you will find my husband listening to "talk" radio, I have my radio tuned to a Christian station where I get music all the time. I'd much rather listen to music any day than listen to "talk" or other forms of radio.

Because I get to serve our Sunday morning groups, I get the opportunity to try some fun recipes and even make new ones that I personally develop. Here is one recipe I developed this last weekend that was a hit. I hope you enjoy it.

Cinnamon Struesel Raspberry Coffee Cake

3/4 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 teaspoon baking powder
Cream these ingredients together until soft and fluffy. Add
3 eggs
Continue to cream the mixture.

Dry ingredients
3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups milk - Add the flour alternately with the flour ending with the flour.

Pour batter into a 9 x 13 oblong pan.

Use 1 can of raspberry filling (or you can use a jar of Raspberry jam). Drop by spoon fulls onto the cake and then swirl the raspberry to make a marble effect.

Struesel topping

1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup cold butter

Cut the butter into the dry mixture and sprinkle on top of the cake and bake the cake at 350 degrees. It will take about 30-40 minutes. Let the cake cool. The raspberry filling and struesel mix and you'll find that it settles onto the bottom of the pan with a little struesel left on top. There won't be any leftovers if you take this treat to a get-together or even if you want to indulge and listen to your favorite music with a cup of cake and coffee by your side.

Enjoy