BIG GRIN! Enjoy the cake!

I sometimes don’t want to bake, but then I think how tasty the outcome will be and power through it. Other times the only thing I want to do is bake!

Love to bake...powdery air and all. I do get the PITA part for you. As much as I love to cook, I HATE frying most anything. Grease spatter = PITA.

chloebud - I don't fry, either lol.

Another woman who posts on the Kitchen Table shared this yesterday:

How come when you mix water and flour together you get glue…and then you add eggs and sugar and you get cake?… where does the glue go?"

--Rita Rudner

Love to bake, hate to clean up!

Madonna

"...where does the glue go?"

Good one, seagrass!

Baking by weight instead of using measuring cups makes it a lot more pleasant.

I probably bake 2 or 3 times a year, if that, from scratch. I confess to buying Trader Joe's mixes for cornbread and gingerbread. But overall, we don't eat cakey sweet things.

. . . but I love to eat baked goods!! That would be how I would finish the sentence! In my dream life I have either a personal chef or the money to peruse a high end bakery at will.

I bake every week. Cookies, scones, bread, whatever. I bake the same way I cook - clean as I go. Once you get that method underway, it doesn't matter what you're doing in the kitchen, at the end of the process almost everything is clean.

Clean as you go...definitely!

I don't particularly crave baked goods much at all - cake, cookies, pies, bread. I guess I'm abnormal. I also find the ingredients for baking rather monotonous and unstimulating. I'd rather chop and stirfry multicolored veggies.

ya know, when company comes, there's no better smell to greet them coming in the door than the smell of freshly-baked cookies. They are so simple, and if you don't want to scratch-bake them, get a roll of cookie dough at the store. They disappear in no time ...

My rhubarb cake is still perfuming the house!!

2many, I have something similar, a Magic Mill that was gifted to me by another member who found it difficult to use. If I'd have known what it cost, I've have never accepted it, but I love it for big jobs, it'll make 6 or 8 loaves of bread, dozens of dinner rolls. My KitchenAid has counterspace, though, and I use that for most things.

I'm smiling, Seagrass, because I'm just the opposite. I love to bake, it seems like magic to turn those "glue" ingredients into something lovely and warm and delicious. However, I hate, hate, hate chopping vegetables, it's a necessary evil, but I don't like it. We need to live closer together, you could chop my vegetables and I'd do all your baking.

My rhubarb is just starting to peek through, we still have patches of snow here, winter is slow to let go this year. Another few weeks, though, and I'll have it by the pounds, probably the tens of pounds, and then I'm making your cake! You know this rhubarb has your name on it...

Which reminds me, how is the shoulder doing? You were having a time with that surgery, I know.

Annie

Annie - thanks. My shoulder is doing well. It sometimes "catches" and I'm not completely pain free but I'm quite functional. I hope never to go through that again. Actually, if something develops on the left side I'll just live with it. Recovery from that surgery was the most painful thing I've gone through in my life. My right arm is my dominant arm. It's wonderful to be able to use it again.

I'm not sure if you had rotator cuff surgery, Seagrass, but members of my family who've had that just get very hushed when they talk about it -- like. never. again. -- verging on one of THE most painful experiences ever.

I've had those "I hate to bake" days too; particularly, if we're having houseguests and all of sudden all that dust that I let go ... washing sheets ... clutter ... you get the idea:)

I'm sure your rhubarb cake will be a hit and well worth the effort.

Cathy in SWPA

For 10 years it was just me baking 10 to 20 different kinds of gluten free baked goods every week to sell at Saturday farmers market. I loved it then and made a lot of people happy before there were long aisles full of GF in every grocery store. Since I have "retired" from that I found that I missed the process of it though. However, my waistline does not need any help with sweets, and I no longer have the pressure to get special orders done on time besides the weekly baking so my blood pressure has vastly improved.

My nemesis then was cocoa powder. It always went "Floof" like some magic fairy waved her giant Wind Wand. And, then the Grit Gods ensured that I make a mess of food processor-ed carrots (for cake) - coating orange grit everywhere.

It is so weird to make a simple cake nowadays as I seem to be on auto-pilot and get no joy from it like I did before. Could be that I no longer have an appreciative clientele? I do so wish I had young grandchildren to fatten up. Mine are in their 30's.

Since there is no need for sweets I've taken up making Finger Foods and Tea Sandwiches. I can make just a little bit of Fru-Fru for the two of us and get to play with different combinations that are more healthy for us. It's the "process" that I had missed.

Seagrass, I'm glad you're healing up. My stepmother had a horrible time, took pain meds and was in pain for quite a while. My Dad, of course, did nothing he was told, never wore the sling, used his arm when he wasn't supposed to and healed up quickly and without incident. Go figure.

And, when Elery had his hip replaced, a dozen people told him it was no big deal, and he had a horrible time. When he got the knee replaced everyone said it was the most awful/horrible/painful thing they'd ever experienced and that they'd never do it again, but he claims to have had NO pain, even right after the surgery.

I guess you never know.

Nancy, can you get a couple of great grandkids? That would be fun! I can't even imagine you not baking away happily.

Annie

Seagrass, I chuckled at your so-true broccoli remark. As I am the second oldest on these forums, it stands to reason that I cannot operate as I once did, but I insist (termed hardheaded) on still trying to bake. Always there seems to be flour decorating everything including me when I've finished, sometimes the use of my Aloe burn plant is necessary, and once in a while the result is tossed. But occasionally something yummy appears, so don't give up as it might be worth the effort. Cheers!

Annie, I’m sure you know this, but for others: The Magic Mill, Ankarsrum, DLX, and Electrolux are all pretty much the same. And I know whomever gifted it to you is thrilled it’s being put to such wonderful use! I was using a 20-yr-old hand-me-down Sunbeam (amazing how those old appliances last!) and lamenting (for the umpteenth time) how I’d love to have a KA when DH ‘out of the blue’ urged me to go ahead and buy one. He sent me a link to the Ankarsrum, which I’d never have purchased… but the ‘go ahead’ was his way of apologizing for the previous month when his sister’s dog brutally attacked my face and DH behaved badly toward me. So I chose the Ank over the KA. Sure has been handy for both small and large quantities of dough!

Nancy, I certainly understand. I baked elaborate desserts for friends and acquaintances special occasions but have since ‘retired’ from it with less time on my hands now, but gosh how I miss it! Now I bake large quantities of breads, cinnamon rolls, coffee cakes, and doughs for DH and myself, dividing into small portions and freezing most for later. What a time saver! We have no children, grandchildren, or other relatives to enjoy, either. I now concentrate on expanding my repertoire of entrees, which is more ‘useful’ for the 2 of us. Sounds like you’ve done the same with the finger foods and tea sandwiches : ) Loved your description of the cocoa powder Floof, and carrot Grit Gods! I used to juice carrots and that orange stuff was all over the place! How I miss carrot juice…

Cathy, I’d far prefer to bake/cook than clean house… our home is not often terribly clean, but we eat well!

Seagrass, so true about broccoli – steaming is a breeze, no fuss, no muss, fewer pans and utensils to wash!

I do clean up as I go along, but I still don't like the clean up. My perfect life include someone else doing the clean up after I create. It's kind of funny, but when I lived in Japan, I hired a maid just for the experience and because I could. Dirt cheap. Well, she quit after a week because there wasn't enough for her to do.

Madonna

bcskye, be careful what you wish for! Now that I'm married, the 'deal' is, I cook, DH does clean up... his cleaning up is getting worse over time, and I find myself having to re-wash.. OTOH, it is nice to have most the dishes cleaned for me! Perhaps I should move to Japan...

2many, that's funny. Elery likes to cook too, but if I cook he cleans up and vice versa.

Madonna, I cracked up that your maid didn't have enough to do. I think I could make a big enough mess in the kitchen to keep TWO maids busy. (grin)

Annie

I love to bake - don't do it nearly as much as I did, mainly as there is just me now and I'd eat the entire thing! No "powdery stuff flying around" at my house - my ancient KA mixer has those clear plastic splash guards and that contains "powder" and splatters quite nicely. Even the clean-up isn't that bad - heck, we're not talking about a frying or roasting pan that might need to be soaked!

I'm also a "clean up as you go" gal - it's just not a big deal and the results of something homemade from scratch is just so much better than what one can buy, even from a good bakery (and they are few and far between these days, in most cities).

That flour and water glue is used by your body to glue the pastries to your hips.