Sweet Traditions

The only thing wrong with it is that it reminds me of… well, honey cake

Every three or four years or so I find myself at it again; it is Rosh Hashanah, after all. I already made apple cake. And coffee crumb cake. Maybe even a cinnamon-laced carrot cake.

But I am a frum Jew! And an eishes chayil. And a Yiddishe mamma. So I face the task and resign myself to the inevitable. How can I desist from making honey cake for yet another Rosh Hashanah?

Is it only my family?

I feel like those people who breezily say, “Oh, we don’t do cholent…” What do you mean don’t do cholent?! Women spanning every continent on the planet, even those who had lost touch after galus, all make some version of cholent, but you don’t do cholent?!

But see, that’s the thing. Cholent on Shabbos is kind of like honey cake on Rosh Hashanah — or (gulp) tzimmes for that matter. I’m into traditional, I truly am. Minhag avoseinu b’yadeinu… It’s not exactly zechus avos, but definitely related. Or so I hope.