In Matt Thurber's blog on making cake from scratch, he tells readers that it's really not much harder than making the boxed version of cake. While I'm glad that someone out there is encouraging folks to try their hand at making less-processed foods, a part of me wanted to shout "NO! Don't tell my secret!"
Here's the deal: When there's a gathering of people, and everyone is supposed to bring food to share, I always offer to make a dessert. When I arrive with my tasty made-from-scratch cakes and pies, everyone assumes that I'm some sort of throwback to the Golden Era's domestic goddess. Nothing could be further from the truth. The image of perfectly coiffed women cooking in pumps and pearls, quite frankly, makes me nauseous. No one knows how easy these recipes are (especially my carrot cake!), mostly because no one has ever thought to try to make them on their own.
"Carrot cake from scratch!" the guests exclaim, "You must have been baking all day!"
I typically reply with feigned modestly while reveling in my success "Oh, really... it's nothing."
Really, though... it is nothing. It honestly takes me MAYBE 10-15 minutes longer than if I just dump a box of mix into a bowl, stir it up, and slop it into a cake pan -- that's including time to make cream-cheese frosting, too. Better yet, since I have access to a real kitchen with storage space, in the long-run, the ingredients aren't much more expensive than buying a box of cake mix and frosting in a can every time I want to bake. And, I have to agree with Matt - the tiniest bit of extra time and money is well worth the end result.
Well, Matt, you've outed me. I guess from now on I just have to hope that none of my friends encounter your blog (or mine!), lest they find out that the expressions "It's a piece of cake" or "It's as easy as pie" might have relevant origins...
* image from creativelydifferentblinds.com
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