A life with cooking (and cakes)

Back in highschool, we used to run a little bakery business. My roommates and I (for it was a boarding school), would take orders from students, and bake cakes specific to their requests. Each cake sold for Rs. 30 (or 35 if there were fancy nuts and stuff involved) - in either case, less than a dollar. This is the entire cake, mind you, not just a slice. So you can imagine the dirty glares I give the bakers here in New York, when a small piece of brownie or slice of cake burns a hole in the pocket.

Maybe it was the fact that in those rustic days, we used to bake our cakes in a toaster oven (there was no real oven). Or maybe it was the memory of how our the toaster oven tray had sloped, so all our cakes had turned out lopsided. Most likely, I think it was the fact that baking requires a precision of measurement which is just incompatible with my 'ballpark' approach to life.

In either case, I'm not sure when it was exactly, but somewhere during my transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, I transitioned from baking to cooking.

Cooking is salubrious. Cooking is fun. And most importantly, cooking doesn't have strict guidelines. A dash of herbs, a sprinkling of seasoning, and a spot of salt is plenty specific enough for me.

Don't I miss baking, you might ask? Mostly, I just miss the cakes. Or, more accurately, I would miss the cakes. It certainly helps that there's people out there in the world (like for example my cos Dr. Livingston), who enjoy the science of baking. And have real ovens. And make cakes which are not lop-sided. And always bring some over for us.