The Cooke Bakes

Whenever I am invited someplace for a holiday or dinner party, I like to offer to bring something and in most cases it is usually something baked.  If I am invited back, it always becomes a challenge to outdo myself.  Fortunately, people who do not bake for themselves are easy to impress.  It is one of the reasons that I think Martha Stewart has been so successful.  The average fan doesn’t seem to understand or perhaps they just don’t care if that kind of culinary magic takes a little slight of hand.  They may not realize that there are people whose entire job is food styling.

When I was married, I would take my in-laws things like gingerbread sleighs filled with homemade candies, lovely decorated cakes, a chocolate house and over the top platters of Christmas cookies.  They couldn’t believe their eyes or their mouths.  It was easy for me to do and I had to learn to accept their compliments without explaining how little I felt I had done.  I was once asked to make a cake for the birthday of a nephew and when he saw it and ate it he said it was the best cake he ever had in his life.  Imagine how I felt when I was later asked to make the same young man a graduation cake.  What could I possibly to do to top the best cake of his life?

I don’t think of myself as being much of a cook.  I have dishes I can do well but they are mostly casseroles and simple foods.  I don’t necessarily know what to do with a steak and have no idea how to prepare seafood.  I don’t love it the way I do baking.  People who understand both will tell you that they are very different and I admire chefs who can do either equally well.  Chefs can grab whatever ingredients look good to them and find a way to throw together a great dish.  A baker may be inspired by a specific ingredient but putting together a cake takes an understanding of different kinds of flours, types of sweeteners and forms of leavening.  Cooking is improv; baking is science.