The Cake: A Beginning

So here I am yabbering on about baking (or at least hinting at it in my banner), and I have posted nary an image, thought or recipe! Clearly I am one sad slacker!!

Allow me to share a tale with you, gentle reader. A long time ago, when I was but a wee snip of a thing (okay, I was actually never really “wee”. I popped out of the womb as a “big-boned lass” and nothing much has changed over the years except scale…..)

In any event, one of the things I loved about childhood is that The Mums used to encourage my brother Paully and I to bake. I have many fond memories of standing on a chair and carefully adding ingredients to a cream coloured bowl. (you know the kind that resemble a cable knit sweater?) There was something utterly magical about putting all of these ingredients together and having a cake or a batch of cookies emerge 20 minutes later! My love for baking continued with the acquisition of my easy bake oven. (Old school, natch!!) Golly.... I can still smell the wonderful scent of the 60 watt lightbulb "baking" that chocolate cake!!!

And then I became an adult. And with the onset of adulthood came utter apathy for baking. I mean, really, [insert eye roll] why bake when bakeries and patisseries abounded? I had more important things to do than chain myself to an oven for god's sake! I had to THINK and PONTIFICATE and WAX POETIC and drink Pernod!! [insert shaking fist and self righteous head nod]

Flash forward to a mellower me. I started following some amazing food blogs, and I found myself inspired again. (Thank you Smitten Kitchen and Pioneer Woman - you have made me see the world in a brave new sugary light.) And I had this urge to bake again. And ever-so-tentatively, I tiptoed back into the baking arena. Once there, I found a kind of peace and joy that I hadn’t experienced since my mother stood behind me and helped my little paw stir that batter into a bliss…..

And THEN Mister Man (I did mention how wonderful he is yes?) purchased THIS for me for the last festive season.

Need I say more? This baby has made mama one happy camper!! And I’d go out on a limb and say it’s made a few friends kinda happy too over the past year....

Stay tuned for the saga of where this next leads me.....