To appreciate this cake, you need two things: taste buds - hopefully a non-hurdle when cream, meringue, butter cake, and fresh berries are involved - and to embrace the dishevelment of it. a square one of the same volume, it always seems easier to get as many servings as needed when you can cut straight across a narrow cake. Even though I do understand that mathematically, one does not get more slices from a long cake vs. Long, rectangular desserts fit easily in the bottom of shopping bags, a primary consideration of mine when making a cake to bring places. I realize that there are more practical ways to approach it, such as a single-layer cake, but I didn’t want practical, I wanted berry cake chaos.Īnd so I made a two-layer brita cake from a 9×13 in, perhaps, the least rational way possible: I divided it the long way.  In image search after image search, I drooled over charmingly lopsided cakes with raw edges, whipped cream with no regard for boundaries, meringues that wobbled and crumbled as they pleased, berries tumbling free, and I wanted it. I first read about brita, pardon me, Brita-Kakku, cakes - described as a typical Finnish summer cake with a based of a butter cake with a meringue baked onto it, whipped cream, and fresh berries - a few years ago and was instantly mesmerized by not just by the delicious promise of these ingredients but because, forgive me, the mess of it.

Smitten Image by Pam B. Morris

Peacesong DC displays the interconnection of these four loves as Shirah grows up in various Washington, D.C. Shirah Shulamit Ojero has four loves: her African American culture, her Jewish heritage, academic study - especially the study of literary epics - and her city, Washington, D.C. Carolivia Herron Peacesong DC: A Jewish Africana Academia Epic Tale of Washington City Tiffany Haddish The Last Black Unicornįrom stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself. Haynes The Soul of Judaism: Jews of African Descent in AmericaĪ glimpse into the diverse stories of Black Jews in the United States, this book traces the history of Jews of African descent in America and the counter-narratives they have put forward as they stake their claims to Jewishness. Listen to Gad’s 2020 interview on HUC-JIR’s College Commons Podcast. Winner of the 2020 Midwest Book Award in Autobiography/Memoir, The Color of Love is an unforgettable memoir about a mixed-race Jewish woman who, after fifteen years of estrangement from her racist great-aunt, helps bring her home when Alzheimer’s strikes. Gad The Color of Love: A Story of a Mixed Race Jewish Girl Shoshana Nambi is a fourth-year rabbinical student at HUC-JIR. But who will win the Ugandan Abayudaya community’s annual sukkah contest? While only one sukkah can be the best, everybody wins when neighbors work together. Shoshi and her brothers love to decorate their sukkah, the hut where her family will celebrate Sukkot.    Shoshana Nambi The Very Best Sukkah: A Story from Uganda Enjoy these fascinating and inspiring autobiographies, essays, novels, and meditations. In celebration of Black History Month, we’ve created a reading list of books that explore the diversity of Black Jewish experiences, starting with an award-winning children’s book written by HUC-JIR rabbinical student, Shoshana Nambi.

Mouth Trap by Rebbecca Brown