I used to enjoy baking cakes with my mother as a child. She would gather the ingredients, and I would mix them with a mixer or by hand. I baked cakes with my mother till my teenage years. In those days, I did not worry about measurements and oven temperature. I would lick the batter after placing the preparation in the oven. Baking cake must have been an activity that made me close to my mother. I stopped baking cake when I reached puberty. It is neither here nor there though.

This morning, I went to Aldi’s I put in my shopping cart the pancake mix, I was thinking baking short cake with the panckake mix. Then I saw a bag of all purpose flour, and remembered the days I used to bake with my mother. I put the flour, a crate of eggs and butter in my shopping cart. I set off to bake a cake. I got home and I proceeded to prepare my cake. I preheated the oven to 325 degrees. I greased and floured 2 round pans. I then mixed a cup of butter and 2 cups of granulated sugar with a hand mixer until creamed in a bowl. I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and four large eggs in the batter. By the way, one adds one egg at a time. I then added in a separate bowl, 2 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt; I used a whisk to combine the content of the other bowl. I then got a cup of milk. I alternately added the flour and milk while mixing the batter. I added the flour in three parts and the milk in two parts. In my action, I started and ended with the flour. Once I was done with mixing; I poured the batter in two pans. I placed them in the oven for seventy five minutes. I let them cool for a total of ten minutes. My cakes were done. Here is a slice below.

Baking a cake brought me back to a period of innocence, and pure joy. It is one way of remembering my mother and how great a person she was. I miss her dearly, because she was a very approachable person.