...Bake Something Good.

The baking gene skipped me.  Both of my grandmothers were really good at baking, and my Grandma Netta lived with us.  She kept us in cookies, cakes and pies.  I don't remember a time when there wasn't something sweet to eat in our kitchen.  When I was eight, she let me help her take cookies from the oven for the first time.  I burned my arm by touching it to the oven.  That should have been my warning. 

My mom bakes all the time.  She will tackle any recipe, the more challenging, the better.  I wish I had her patience when it comes to measuring and mixing.  I just get flour all over me and the kitchen and get frustrated.  The fact that Frank doesn't care for sweets has kept me from trying too hard, too.  When I was in home ecomonics class in high school, we had to make biscuits.  Mine turned out hard as rocks.  My dad laughed and said that I needed to practice or I wouldn't be able to find a husband.  I told him that I'd find a man who didn't like homemade biscuits.  He said it couldn't be done, but I did it.  Yes, Frank likes those nasty canned biscuits better than homemade ones!  Those I can handle, but he even does those better than I do.  Sad. 

Jen is a baker, too.  She even has Dean helping her bake.  He's two.  Has his own apron with his name on it and a chef's hat.  He's really good at placing the paper liners in the muffin tins and he loves to pour the ingredients from the measuring cups and spoons into the bowl.  In fact, he's gotten so confident that when Jen tries to help him pour, he tells her, "No, Sugar. I do it."  I love the fact that he calls her "Sugar".  It fits her perfectly!  Jen bakes cupcakes and cakes for anyone and everyone.  If she's ever met you and finds out that you have a birthday coming up, she'll bake you the cake of your choice. 

Now, there's one cake that I can make and it always turns out well.  It's a Baby Food Cake.  Sounds strange, but it's basically a spice cake made with plum baby food.  You can use applesauce if you prefer.  It's baked in a bundt pan (no layers for me), and has a delicious lemon glaze.  Good stuff.  I used to bake those all the time when I needed something to take to a potluck.  I also baked them for Jen and her friends when she was in college and grad school.  It made me feel so good when Jen reported that the cake was gobbled up instantly.  But, her friends also gobbled up the slice and bake cookies I sent.  I guess they were just hungry students who would eat anything and everything. 

This week I've made quick breads for a sale our Sunday School class is having to benefit the daughter of one of the couples in our class.  She is leaving in January on a mission trip - eleven countries in eleven months.  We're hoping to raise a good bit of money for her.  I admit that I cringed when I found out that we were only doing breads and not cookies and such.  But I can do muffins, so I made cranberry orange muffins and one loaf of cranberry orange bread.  Yesterday I turned out three loaves of pumpkin bread.  All are in my freezer waiting to be sold next Saturday.  None of them stuck to the pans or broke in two, and I didn't even burn myself!  Maybe there's hope for me yet.  Maybe I can get these two to help me learn to bake something more difficult.