
Cakes Are Not My Strong Suit
What was I thinking? When I saw a recipe that looked like a healthy alternative – a peach or strawberry pound cake, made from scratch – that is not out of a box – I should have remembered.
Cakes are not my strong suit.
I have a long stretch of losers – from cakes that fall, to cakes I forget to add sugar to, to cakes that fall apart when I try to ice them. So, what I part of attempting that new recipe seemed like a good idea, I can’t say. Especially since this recipe substituted canola oil for butter!
Nevertheless, I mulled it over in my seasoned citizen brain, and thought: why not just add the fruit to a box cake, cooked like a bunt cake. Anyway, the box cake called for butter!
Now, I knew the difference between pound cake and box cake. And deep down inside, I also knew: A boxed yellow cake won’t ever be a pound cake. But, for some reason – perverse no doubt — I discounted what I knew to try what I wanted. I wanted to use a box mix in place of a recipe, albeit a simple one.
What part of that was a good idea?
Trying to disengage the cooled cake from its pan, though I saw the confirmation that simply wanting something to be a success doesn’t make it so – especially when I follow my inclinations in spite of knowing better. Am I a product of today’s world or what!
Had I followed the simple directions for a pound cake, perhaps I would have broken my losing baking streak.
I think it will be awhile before the baking bug bites again. The local bakery is relieved, too. They need customers like me!
I’ve decided that the stuff falling through the cracks is confetti and I’m having a party! ~Betsy Canas Garmon