I enjoy cooking–being in the kitchen, putting meals together, discovering new recipes. I’m fascinated by shows like Chopped, where chefs can take an oddball assortment of ingredients and come up with a spectacular meal. I absolutely cannot do that (although I wish I could) and it’s on my Bucket List to someday take cooking classes.
So while I can usually cook up a nice dinner, I’ve discovered that baking is a completely different thing. And that while I’m a competent cook, I’m a lousy baker. Yeah, I can make decent cookies–but only after I normally overcook the first cookie sheetful (is that a word?). And cakes? Fuggetaboutit. My sister is a fabulous baker. Seriously fabulous. She used to bake cakes for restaurants. This gene has completely bypassed me in the family pool. Sis makes an incredible carrot cake with the best cream cheese frosting on the planet. The cake is light and moist, and the frosting has just the right amount of sweetness. She gave me recipe. Now, I must say, my frosting came out good. But the cake? Blech. So I called my sister:
Me—my cake sucks. I followed the directions EXACTLY, yet it was an epic fail. I’m cursed.
Sis—What’s wrong with it?
Me—instead of being light and fluffy like yours, it’s dense and about a quarter of an inch high. It’s like a squashed carrot brick.
Sis—it could be your baking soda and baking powder are old. How long have you had them?
Me—(blinking in confusion) Uh, I don’t know.
Sis—more than a year?
Me—Well…yeah. Probably more like 5 years. Maybe ten. Maybe I got them when I first got married.
Sis—I think we’ve solved the problem.
Now who the heck knew you had to replace baking soda and baking powder every few months? Not me! WHERE are these things written down? Nowhere! It’s just not fair. Armed with this new Baking Secret Knowledge, I toddled off to Publix and got new stuff and tried again. I whipped up the carrot cake batter with my fresh baking powder and baking soda and anticipated great results. But instead of a cake, I thought it might be fun to make cupcakes instead. I love cupcakes! Everyone loves cupcakes! It’ll be perfect!
Not so much.
That’s the day I learned that cupcakes require a MUCH shorter cooking time than a cake. And that if you actually do bake cupcakes too long, they look (and taste) like hockey pucks.
As I said, a baker I am not. But I am determined. I’m going to attempt that carrot cake again and I shall not fail! (Actually, I most likely will, but again–I am determined!).
Are you a good baker–or are you like me (in a word—hopeless)? What is your greatest cooking/baking success? How about your greatest cooking/baking disaster? Have you ever taken a cooking class? Have any great cooking/baking tips to share? (Please do–I need all the help I can get!)
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
I lurve to bake! I worked as a professional cake decorater one summer, and spent a yr with a small company making a thousand flavoured biscuits a day. by hand.2 carpal tunnel surgeries a few yrs later can attest to that fact. .(I made other items like gourmet pita chips, dinner sauces and quiches, but I primarily did the biscuits)
I’m still called back to my nannying homes to bake. I boast because I can! lol
And as Julia London can attest, I shared my Chocolate Carrot cake recipe freely with the ladies of the Goddess Blogs. the frosting alone is a soft cheesecake. yUM!
If you want to continue to bake. [instead of doing what I did - find yourself a great couple of bakeries to patronize], my best hint is:
organize all the ingredients in order of the receipe… I have a couple of sets of measuring cups… and use them to measure the smaller amounts of ingredients… Think of yourself as one of those Food Network chefs that have all those little bowls lined up..
you won’t forget to add the salt – or add it 2X by mistake..
I love to bake, esp pies. Pumpkin from scratch (I grew up on a farm, we grow our own) is my specialty. I don’t measure anything. but I have backed off the crusts and use the Pillsbury ones. I have no room to roll any more.
Cooking has taken me longer. My mom is-or was- a great cook. I don’t think she cooks for herself much. I can follow a recipe but forget just throwing things together. Watching Rachel Ray has really improved my skills and hubby is enjoying the benefits.
My daughter got me hooked on Foodgawker.com. OMG. Recipe heaven!
Ok so my biggest triumph was when my daughter and her bestie wanted something sweet so I showed her how to make microwave coffee mug chocolate cake. They had so much fun and they came out spot on. My worst experience was when I forgot to add the sugar. Yeah. Bleh. I am a huge carrot cake fan. My husband loves cheesecake. My first and only attempt at cheesecake was actually last weekend (it was our 6 yr anniversary) and I thought oooh I will make my sweety cheesecake. It came out soupy. And apparently too sweet even though we did not add sugar. (Sweetened condensed milk). I will of course try again but a different recipe.
Not to show off, but I have asked that I get this as a present.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/WhatsOn/tudorcookery
Yes. Hampton Court Palace. Henry VIII’s and Elizabeth I’s home. They offer Tudor cooking classes. London is pretty far from me but I think it is really worth an over night stay. Yeah. My ‘want’ just gets more and more expensive. hehehe
We make Cake in a Cup in the microwave, Ti–it’s yummy and it only has 140 calories! Thank you for reminding me there actually *is* something I can bake–even if it’s in the microwave, LOL!
I’m very good at baking bread, pies (pecan and apple), and cookies. The secret to good pie crust is to only roll it once. More than once will make the crust tough. My grandmother gave me that advice. I cook but after43 years of marriage, I’m happy when I don’t have to do it.
Sandi, I’ve never made a pie crust. Ever. BUT–if I ever do, I will remember to only roll it once.
I love to cook and I am really good at it but baking home made pies – not so good. Pie crust is the worst. I can never seem to roll it in a circle no matter what I do. And then it starts to stick to the roller so I add more flour and then there ends up being too much flour. So now I just get the pre-made crusts that I lay right in the pan. So much easier. I can make wonderful box cakes too. I won’t go into what happened when I made a cake from scratch.
What amazes me about the difference is that when I cook, I never measure anything. I have a feel for how much seasoning and such to go into a dish. Baking however, must be measured to the T.
I’m begging here. Let this be the final morning post on all things baked. I am having cravings that involve every sweet and high calorie ingredient known to man. Plus, it’s very difficult to remove drool from a keyboard.
I do love baking, but I am the one who ends up eating a majority of what I bake, and it’s deadly. This is why my ass has it’s own zip code.
Next time you bake, Sherri, invite me over. I’d love to share your zip code xox
I’ll confess, I love baking. it’s sort of my release. Bad day, make bread. Really bad day, make brownies. Not even to eat them. Just to do it. The simple act of creating something from bits and pieces gives me solace. Now what I can’t do is decorate a cake. Anything more than galzing seems to be beyond my abilities. (Although the Wilton cakes make it pretty darn foolproof and I did pull off some elaborate ones for my daughter’s b-day). Still someday I’d like to take a decorating class. Oh–and a making croissants class. My one and only attempt was a two day crazy event that ended up tasting more like cresent rolls than croissants.
I took a Wilton cake decorating class with my sister when we were both much younger. I can still do the icing rose and some simple borders, but it is a real pain, a lot of work and mess with all the icing bags and making colors. I think you have to have patience and a genuine love for it. I used up my allotment of love and patience for decorating in buttercream.
I want to take a cake decorating class! I love the look of all those Wilton gadgets. Living in a small town is great–but you don’t get any cake decorating class opportunities without traveling a loooooong way.
Oh, here’s the easiest cookie recipe in the world. So yummy and very versatile.
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
That’s it. No flour, no baking powder. It doesn’t make much batter, so I always doubled the ingredients. Stir all together until mixed. Roll into balls (apprx 3/4 – 1″ diameter) and place on cookie sheet. Use fork to LIGHTLY press down. Don’t squish , just press about halfway down.
Bake at 350 for approx 10-12 minutes. Keep an eye on them.
Best peanut butter cookies. EVER.
The great thing is you can add most anything to the recipe to spice it up.
Stir in chocolate chips, use crunchy instead of creamy peanut butter, or crunchy granola bar, or nuts, whatever.
Ohhhhhh…. this sounds totally delish.
Wow–great cookies and 3 ingredients? I may be able to do that! I’m def going to try. Thanks, VB!
hopeless. I don’t even have baking soda or baking powder.
Sigh, Julia London, you are hopeless.
Ah, just when I think I’m hopeless in the kitchen, Julia comes along and makes me feel like Julia Child. Love you, Julia (London, that is!) xox
I so do not enjoy baking any more. When I was married, I did most of the cooking and my ex did most of the baking. He loved it. He would experiment, create new recipes, the whole nine yards. Me? Not so much.
I guess my best baking accomplishments would be cakes. I made a great cream cheese pound cake and an awesome, yet difficult carrot cake (my mom’s recipe–3 layers and ultra moist). Oh, and a mayonnaise cake. Yummy.
Mayo cake??? Never heard of such a thing!
I know. The name sounds gross. It’s actually a chocolate cake and it is sooo moist and heavenly.
I loooooove Chocolate Mayonnaise cake. Right up there with Red Velvet, if not above it.
Jacquie, you got me giggling this AM. You seem like such a model of perfection and I am crushed, crushed, a thousand times crushed to know that you have a chink in that perfection. (Yes, I am secretly relieved, but also disappointed). I think baking takes lots and lots of practice to get it right. At least for me, it does. And also, just an FYI for those people that you do not want to know that you’re not a paragon of perfection, cake mixes these days are REALLY, REALLY good. It’s sort of scary how home-baked they taste, even more home-baked than home-baked.
Souffles are my downfall (hehe). I can get them to rise, but when you cut into them, they fall way too flat. I got one batch to do decent one time, but I can’t replicate. Some weekend, I will spend an entire weekend experimenting with souffles in order to achieve perfection.
I have had many disasters and they all end up in the trash. An accidental overdose of salt (happened more than once), so much vanilla it could make you drunk, and lots of “I forgot it’s in the oven” moments. Nothing that stands out in its awfulness, more a collection of small failures, but all success is built on a collection of small failures, so I tell myself that it’s OK.
Someday I will take cooking classes. I would love to do that. For now, I get Cooks Illustrated magazine (the BEST!) which goes through a whole test kitchen process with a recipe, and tells you what each change in ingredients caused. “The all-purpose flour had a tough texture to it, but when I substituted cake flour and got the crisp light coating that I craved, I knew I was getting close.”
Souffles, Kathleen! That is some hard core baking there. I think a lot of really good bakers would be taken down a few notches with souffles. Party on.
I vote we take cooking classes together, Kathleen–we’d have a blast! Who wants to join us? Whine Sisters In The Kitchen!
I’ll look for Cooks Illustrated magazine–it sounds perfect for me!
Jacquie, you should definitely check it out. It’s actually a really great read.
Sherri, you, me and Dee should have a baking party weekend.
Ooh, yeah! How fun! Good idea.