Oh the sweet irony or rather bitter , I finally received ‘Orangette’ blogger Molly Wizenberg’s book “A Homemade Life” . I’ve been coveting that book for months and was so happy when I held it in my hands . It’s by my favorite food blogger , lovely poetic writing with great recipes… and now when I could finally gobble up her book , I’m on a diet .A no sugar no carbs South Beach inspired pre-beach-holiday diet and it’s hard. I love to bake and I miss it.
In my family it was always a ritual to bake on Sundays, both my grandmothers were/are superb bakers as is my mother and I first started making cakes along them/ with them when I was barely out of toddler age . Amazing German cake confections , Christmas cookies , linzer cookies , Hungarian beigli and Strudel (rétes). And now American inspired cup cakes and French yoghurt cakes.
I’ve never liked cooking, the cutting up of foods and having to stay by and stir and constantly adjust things. That is W.’s joy . But baking to me is relaxing, nostalgic and inherently magical . Mixing the simplest of things , then leaning back , reading, relaxing for 40 minutes and a beautiful fragrant golden cake appears .Not to mention eating it .
I have been dreaming of opening a bakery for a while, with all those cupcake places opening around Paris and the Hummingbird bakery in London it’s hard not to daydream. But all the realities of it , the financial side, having to break even , make profit , taxes etc. just scares me away. So for now I will just lustingly (ok so that’s not an existing word but who cares , it’s my blog) read my book, dream of all the cakes in my future , and keep eating my veggies.
