Let Them Bake Cake!
Food reigns in our house. Food is so much more than sustenance. It's
tradition, culture, adventure, affection. If there's one thing I want
to impart to my sons, it's a love of food. Whether it's edamame popped from its lightly salted pod, apple crumble dolloped with homemade whipped cream, dal and rice eaten with their fingers, gooey Wisconsin cheesecurds dipped in ranch dressing, baba ghanouj spread on warm pita, almond biscotti
dunked in hot chocolate, or North Carolina barbecue doused in spicy
vinegar sauce, food rules. Food is the leading lady in our story.
We congregate in the kitchen, as many families do. My sons perch at the breakfast bar and snack while I prep veggies. Sometimes they help me stir or grind or knead. They have fun adding a dash of this and a sprinkle of that to whatever's on the menu. We pore over cookbooks and cookie recipes. I have always encouraged my sons to play in the kitchen with me. My older son, Bird, didn't have a security blanket or favorite stuffed animal. His "lovey" was big ole mixing spoon that he lovingly called "Poon."
My sons like to watch the Food Network Challenge. It's great family TV that engages our minds, our imagination, and our tastebuds. We don't much care about the wacky burger recipes or food styling competitions. Bring on the cake challenges! The next best thing to eating cake is watching the pros making cake. It's good fun to see the extreme decorating and smoking, spinning whatchamacallits. We teeter with tension when it's time to move the cake to the judging table. We all hiss at the mere sight of sugarcraft hall of famer Kerry Vincent. She's like the pinch nosed Simon Cowell of Food Network Cake Challenge.
The one show we all love best (though Mac Daddy would still put anything with Giada in it at the top of his list), is Ace of Cakes. I've been a huge fan since before Duff, Geof, and Mary Alice were household names. I can't bake worth a lick so I live vicariously through the team at Charm City Cakes. What I really want is to share a whole mess of 5:00 Fridays with the crew and laugh until my jaws ache. I also really want to chow down on all those carved off bits of cake (The waste is criminal! All that lost cake...sigh.). Bird, Deal, and I gasp whenever we see those carved off hunks of delectable cake brushed into the garbage. Cake!
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati