Fun Friday: What's your tradition?

When the girls in the office mentioned the idea of doing Fun Fridays on the blog, I thought it was a great idea!  Little did I know that the very first one would be alotted to me :)

Since December holds one of the most anticipated holidays in our culture (and in our faith!), and because I always tend to associate the holidays with family traditions, I thought it might be fun to share family traditions with each other for this first Fun Friday. 

In our family, two traditions have been passed down and made their way into our yearly Christmas celebrations.  The first is from my family and is centered around focusing our hearts on Christ each year.  The second is from my husbands family, and like many good traditions do, it involves food!!

Without futher ado, I present to you

Christmas in the O'Donoghue home

Tradtion One: Reading the Story

My father didn't become a follower of Jesus until I was in my 30's, so I clearly remember the change that occured in his life from that point on.  In fact, I remember the first Christmas after he became a Christian.  He made a change in our routine that Christmas morning, and that change has carried on through every Christmas morning, every year. 

On that first Christmas morning as a new believer, my dad sat us all down and-before we could open a single present-we read the Christmas story.  I will never forget that day, as my mother read the Christmas story to us.  That was the day that remembering and worshipping Christ became more important than opening gifts. 

To this day, just like back then, we spend our first moments of the day listening to and marveling over the story of our Savior's birth.  No wrapped present could ever supercede the beauty of that gift!

This picture is from http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1588771328/tt0762121#

Tradition Two: Let there be CAKE!

Moravian Sugar Cake to be exact!  Yes, that's right folks, we eat cake every Christmas morning for breakfast.  We truly make it healthier by adding fresh fruit to our plates ;)   This recipe was passed down from my husband's mother and is a staple for our Christmas morning breakfast menu.  (It's even traveling to China with us this year, as we'll spend the days leading up to Christmas there!)

What is Moravian Sugar Cake? 

Well, it looks like this:

Source: pastrychefonline.com via Carrie on Pinterest

And it tastes heavenly!

What kind of Fun Friday would this be if I didn't give you the recipe?  So, here you go:

Moravian Sugar Cake

1 cup warm water
2 packs dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 cup unseasoned mashed potatoes (just potatoes...nothing added in like butter or milk, etc.)
2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup warm milk
2 whole eggs, beaten
6 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup potato water (you know, the water that you boiled the mashed potatoes in)

Sound good yet?

Topping

butter
brown sugar
cinnamon

Sound better??

Let's make it:

Oh, and before you start...don't make the dough in a metal bowl and don't grease your pans.

Step 1:
Stir 1 cup warm water, 2 packs dried yeast, and 1 tsp sugar until dissolved.

Step 2:
While yeast dissolves, cream butter and sugar.  Add mashed potatoes and salt; beat.  Add milk and eggs; beat.  Add yeast from Step 1.  Add flour 2 cups at a time.

Step 3:
Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2-2 hours until it doubles in size.

Step 4:
Divide the dough in half and place each half on a separate cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.  Spray your hands with pan spray to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.  Stretch/pat/pull the dough apart until it fits your pan.  Alternate between the two pans as you go to give the dough a chance to relax and stretch more easily.

Step 5: 
Cover the stretched dough with a lint-free towel or plastic wrap and let rise until puffy, about another hour.

Step 6: 
Place your oven racks on the bottom third and top third racks.  Preheat oven to 350F.

Step 7:
Dimple the puffy dough all over with your fingers.  Literally, dimple it... you can be rough if you need to be.  Holes are OK on this cake!

Step 8:
Place a small piece of butter in each dimple.  Then put a generous blob of brown sugar on top of that. Sprinkle cinnamon evenly over each cake.

Step 9:
Place cakes on racks and bake for 20-25 minutes. 

Step 10:
Once the cakes have baked for 20 min, remove them from oven to cool for a few minutes.  Then, using the help of a large spatula and maybe even another person, slide the cakes onto cooling racks. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

The cooked cake can be stored at room temp as well as frozen for later!


Do you have a favorite tradition you'd like to share?  We'd love to hear it... who knows, maybe we'll even incorporate it into our own celebration!