My First Cake… Posted on October 27, 2009October 28, 2009 By pamela I’ve been thinking back on my first cake — well, I think it was my first — could’ve been my second. I was making a cake for my mother’s birthday — so, June. I made my first cake in June. I cannot recall the year — probably I was nine years old. I made a cake from a boxed mix and I added blue food colouring along with the eggs and water. Maybe some oil. It would have been Wesson Oil, I think. I baked the cake in an angel food cake pan and set the timer so I’d be sure to not fail by over or under baking the cake. I didn’t over-bake it. I didn’t under-bake it. I didn’t have any breezes in the kitchen — nor did I slam any doors or make any sudden moves that would cause the cake to fall. True to form, in that I cannot do things I’ve not seen done before, I removed the cake from the oven and immediately inverted it on a bottle – on the counter away from any drafts. I had seen my mother do this with her beautiful angel food cakes. The baked contents of the pan — the blue contents — instantly dropped onto the counter. I suddenly was faced with a dilemma: Uh-Oh! What do I do now? I’ve never seen this part before. Well, I’ve thought of that little incident from time to time over the years. When I take a cake from the oven, and after it’s cooled a bit, I invert it on a rack. Because I always grease and flour or spray the cake pans and line them with parchment and because I wait a bit for cooling, I don’t have problems with cake falling all over the place or bits of cake staying in the pan. I’m not sure why I baked that cake in the angelfood cake pan in the first place. Maybe I thought it was just the pan to use. I had seen my mother use that pan. And I sure don’t know why I coloured it blue — maybe I thought it would resemble some sort of summer pool or something beach-like — I don’t know. But I do know that the technique I used that day to form it into a dome on a plate is a technique I just might need sometime — and if I do, I’ll know how it’s done. And I know that day, when it was all said and done, the frosting covered a multitude of sins problems. I use this technique today. On cakes and other things. my story
A blogger’s loss & gain Posted on April 16, 2015April 16, 2015 [cp_dropcaps]H[/cp_dropcaps]ardly a week goes by that I don’t think (or mutter aloud) that this or that blog or twitter account will have a crash. In just a matter of time there will be an incident or an avalanche of incidents that will take a blogger to an intersection in her… Read More
Things happen; and life goes on. Posted on June 12, 2012June 12, 2012 I thought I’d sort of continue on from where I left off yesterday (and then life goes on). Things happen; usually a bunch of things have to happen in order to arrest our attention – unless someone yells, Fire! or someone comes in bloody or the phone rings in the… Read More
THM or A Plan On The Shelf Posted on March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 October 17, 2013 I received my book… and I wrote about the THM journey here with additional entries following. I wasn’t so much seeking to be a trim healthy mama as much as I was determined to be a healthy mama who happened to figure out how to be and… Read More
I totally know what you mean… I hate to make something for someone who’s very, very good at the thing I attempt to make. Seems it never turns out quite right. Trying too hard, maybe? I don’t know. Blessings…
And to think that we sat on the floor to mix the dough bcz it was too hard for us to stir it. I thought *everything* was *so* much work… and took such a long time to do it! Amazing. 🙂 I haven’t made “no-bake” cookies in *years!* Ten years, maybe? Wow. Some of our children don’t even know what they are! And to think we used to make those every week, right? Maybe today’s the day for no bakes, then! 🙂
Pamela, What a sweet story…thank you for sharing it… You have improved your skill GREATLY from what I can see! Love, C~
I love this entry! I hadn’t thought of that cake in years and now think it was probably one of the best I ever ate. Thank you. And I can see two little girls sitting on the kitchen floor with mixing bowls in their laps making no-bake cookies. What fun pix in my mind.
Oh dear. I had to laugh when I read this today! It reminds me of my cake for my dear hubby’s birthday this past month. (Oh…I guess I must mention, I am NOT a spring chicken…I’m a fairly young grandma…)So I should be better in my cake decorating than I am…but alas…I am not… So I made my precious man a butter pecan cake and made homemade frosting with sour cream. It was yummy but it was UGLY! My 12 year old daughter, Rebecca, helped me by sprinkling cinnamon on it. No, not sprinkling…it was more like dumping. It resembled being caught in a dust storm. The sad thing is that my husband creates beautiful cakes, wedding cakes, birthday cakes, graduation cakes…it is awful that he of all people should get an ugly one for his birthday. When I told him that, he said, “Well, I guess I need to teach Rebecca how to decorate cakes more…” I think he has given up on me!! Haha!! I’m still his official cake BAKER and icing MAKER though! Thanks for your site, I love it!! 🙂