Throw Back: The First Cake Bake

I've hit the inevitable point in the semester where I no longer have any baking projects from winter break or enough of a social life to have done any blog worthy fine dining. Well, I had some beer themed cupcakes, but maybe I'll talk about that later. But, brace yourselves for some faux throw back friday (?) posts and if you're extra lucky, guest posts from friends (friends who may/may not actually read this, wink wink nudge nudge). 

The fact that I spend a lot of my time thinking about food and looking at food, and now documenting food would suggest that I might actually have some sort of talent or taste for fine dessert and dining. But thats a big 'ol lie. Just like those food photos I discussed last week. A lot of other "foodies" (ugh that word) have sepia-toned memories of cooking in the kitchen with their moms or dads. There were those classic family recipes passed from generations downward, or maybe a favorite pie a certain uncle always brought to holiday dinners. As they got older, their parents started letting them help out in the kitchen, teaching them the little tricks and hints not written on the recipe cards. Before long, whelp, there's a highly accomplished 18 year old baker who can make some serious macarons why I scratch my head about why the hell its so important to have 35 folds versus 36 (true story).

The point is, I did not grow up in a household where food or baking or whatever was an essential part of the family culture. Sure, my mom did do some fancy baking here and there as she rotated through experimenting with each classic housewife hobby. The only family tradition we may have had food-wise was probably dumplings, which as a highly Americanized kid, I did not particularly start enjoying until college. Seriously, I hated the slimy texture of dumplings. 

So it came as a mild surprise when I was in high school when it was thing for people to bake treats to give to their friends at school for their birthdays. It was equally a symbol of popularity for the recipient and the gift giver. For the recipient, you truly had the best of friends if not only your treats were homemade, but were in such an abundant quantity that you needed your friends to trail you all day to help carry all your treats from class to class. For the gift giver, you truly were the kindest, most talented of friends to make such a beautiful cake with meticulously placed toothpicks to hold up that perfectly folded saran wrap without touching the frosting.

To my friends in high school, it was a surprise that I had never baked a cake. Surely a sophomore, about to get her permit, would have turned on the family oven at some point? So in a secret ploy to force people on my cross country team to be my friends, I told them that they had to show me how to make a cake. And thus, some high school friendships and my obsession with cake was born. Not from a fine, time honored tradition of making ~memories~ in the kitchen, but rather from a teenage plan to become cool.

As you can tell, we started out with the basics. A yellow box cake mix (not even funfetti!), and what looks like the distinctive goopiness that is the oh-so-delicious cream creese frosting amplified with lots of food dye. Now this cake + those cupcakes were baked oh, like 5 years ago? Back when I was getting ready to hit the peak and prime of my glorified high school running career. So the fact that there's a stick figure running on a cake is moderately less insane given those circumstances. Not sure if my decorating skillz have really improved since then. They've certainly gotten much more boring though.