The first angel food cake

I Kings 19:6

There was at Elijah's head a cake baked on stones and a jar

of water.  And he ate and drank.

Ancient Church commentator on this Hebrew

Bible narrative (specifically on I Kings 19:5-8)

Ephrem of Syria

The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him,

and said, "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be

too much for you!"

Elijah was sleeping under a tree [Hebrew rotem ; Latin

term/species retama raetam_ ; also "Spanish Broom"].

Now an angel came to him and woke him up (sleep

was weighing him down because of his fatigue, affliction,

and discouragement) and provided him with strength

and comfort through the meal that he prepared for him.

The nourishment of the prophet consisted of bread

baked in the ashes and his drink of water.  And the

angel said, "The journey will be too much for you. . .

you will not escape the affliction which you fear,

through your death, as you believe, but through 

your flight.  Therefore the journey is too long for you,

and it is not like going to Cherith a place close by.

Rather you are leaving for a distant location among

foreign people where you will get peace and prosperity.

That is why, until you are allowed to do so, you must

eat and drink and prepare yourself to be strong

enough for a long journey, because in a barren and

desert land, you will not find any food."

Allegorically the bread baked in the ashes which

the vigilant angel offers to Elijah has two different

meanings.

1) it immediately shows the toil of penitence which

the ashes symbolize perfectly, since they are a 

figure of Mourning and of a contrite heart; 

2) the unleavened bread soaked in ashes and 

the water are also the food of the poor and the

miserable. . .figures of the righteous for whom

the Providence of the Creator has established

a course of life in the paths of privation.

Therefore, he leads them through much

suffering, privation of food, and a severe fast

in order to purify them completely from all

the filthy of earthly things.  Then he guides

them to the mountain (the perfection and

the accomplishment of the saints!).