I rarely bake any longer.
In my twenties, I made bread from scratch. This was before the invention of bread machines. I baked an occasional cake, and made pies and cobblers. We have a refrigerated dough crescent roll that is served at every Thanksgiving dinner, and a pastry called “Sugar Crisp” that’s made each Christmas. For a number of years, the women of my family have been invited to a day of baking cookies in December, to get ready for Christmas.
When my doctor suggested that I stop baking, I thought he was crazy. I kept on baking, but shared the fruits of my labors. Then….gradually, I started to cut back on my baking.
There are times, though, when I get a taste for a certain dessert, and carve out the time to make it from scratch. Last night, I cleaned the kitchen, put everything away, and then checked to see if I had the ingredients for carrot cake. I needed more oil. I decided to make a quick stop at the grocery store today, and pick up what I needed. I’d still have time to make the cake and cool it before dinner.
With the exception of needing two cups of grated carrots, the recipe is extreemely simple. Some time ago, I discovered that I could use my blender to chop the carrots, so that’s what I did today. I think I must have dirtied every bowl in the kitchen, and several spoons and measuring cups. Why is that? I think there must be an axiom somewhere establishing a relationship between the number of dirtied dishes and how good something tastes.
By noon, I had the cake in the oven, and worked on dinner preparations while it baked. The house smelled wonderful with the scent of cinnamon filling the air.
When my timer went off, I did the cake test (piercing the cake with a toothpick to determine if the batter has been cooked thoroughly), and set the pan on a rack to cool. When it was cool, I used a knife to release the cake from the edges of the pan, turned the pan over and tapped the bottom to release the cake.
Two thirds……maybe three quarters…..of the cake came out of the pan.
I have one lightweight, metal, easy release bundt pan that will be in the recycling bin this evening.
It was incredibly frustrating to have put all that time and effort into making a special dessert and have it look like something that came through an urban war.
It tasted fine. We had carrot cake after dinner. BUT….I knew it wasn’t what it should be, and it bothered me.
I think I have one more carrot cake in me, maybe more than one, but I won’t be using that crappy pan, that’s for darn sure. Sur la Table…..Crate and Barrel……Kitchen shops across Illinois….here I come, looking for the definitive Bundt pan.
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
I think August is early enough to begin putting my name on the list for those wonderful “Sugar Crisp” *big grin*
Ahhhhh…nice try, little girl! lol I’ll put you at the head of the list, but I wouldn’t hope for much this year! *G*
Sometimes, even the best of pans and ingredients creates a mess. But it is a good reason for upgrading to something newer. Besides, you might be right.
Enjoy the next round.
I’m fairly certain that I’m right about this, WichiDude. My older sister, who can do no wrong in the kitchen, had exactly the same experience with a carrot cake not two weeks ago. I should have learned from her, and baked mine as a layer cake.
There’s just something about those light Bundt pans that makes for a bad release.
I’ll let you know when I get the new pan and you can come for dessert! lol
In my kitchen, if the cake won’t fit into a 13x9x2 pan, it doesn’t get made. One doesn’t have to worry about getting a cake out of the pan in one piece if one doesn’t try to take it out of the pan! My bundt pan was probably used 10-15 years ago. Not sure when my round, layer cake pans were last used (for anything other than serving watermelon slices, that is!)
You people who like to work hard just make the rest of us look even lazier than we are (if possible!)
Cop Car…..you’re so darned smart. I thought about that 13 x 9 pan, and said to myself “Nahhhhh…..it will look prettier in the Bundt pan.”
Boy was I ever wrong. I bow to your superior knowledge! lol
Story: My mother was a world-class cake baker. She made wedding cakes and decorated them for close friends (and relatives–including me) and she made chiffon cakes when they were “the” up-and-coming cake. In about 1953, she made some sort of a layer cake that, like your banana cake, did not come out of the pans nicely. Mom just stacked one fractured layer atop the other—-and rammed her fist through the whole pile. (I think that she was a tad upset. We kids made ourselves scarce for a while, but not too long. We ate every crumb of that cake. It was delicious!)
That sounds like a satisfying end to a tough day! lol
My mother talks about a sponge cake that her mother made. Unfortunately, Mother was a child when her mother passed away, and she never learned her mother’s baking secrets. That sponge cake must have been incredible, though, because my mother has talked about it all my life.
Ooh, yes! Sponge cake is what I used to make (in a jelly roll pan) when we wanted to have strawberry shortcake. When we first came to Wichita so that HH could be gainfully employed, I was expecting Dudette within 3 months, so dropped out of school and was at home for several months. I would take a wide-mouth 1-pint thermos bottle, pack it with vanilla ice cream, and stick into the (tiny) freezer section of the refrigerator at night. When packing HH’s lunch the next morning, I cut a piece of sponge cake to fit a lunchbox pie container and stuck a small jar of freshly smashed & sugared strawberries and the ice cream into his lunchbox. All of the guys were jealous when they saw that HH had fresh strawberry shortcake in his lunchbox! (Now, I’d put a Trail Mix bar into a paper bag and hand it to him–LOL. I’m no longer “trained”.)
And you once accused ME of raising the bar on food preparation!!!!?? I’d say Dudette comes by her preparedness from both sides of her family! *G*
Mmmmm…Carrot Cake!-since no one would eat my White Bread,Brown Bread or Wholemeal Bread made in the Bread Machine I tried a premixed Carrot cake mix-Fab! Water,4 tbsp oil and tip the packet in-that’s it! 90 mins later Beautiful Carrot Loaf-everybody (including Visitors!) enjoyed it! wonder if a sponge cake would work like that???…..
Wowwwww…..aren’t YOU adventurous! I’ve never tried a cake in the bread machine. Give the sponge cake a whirl, and let me know how it turned out. Good luck!