It has been my observation that the world is divided into 2 types of people: the people who love to cook and the people who love to bake. (Alright yes, there are 3 kinds if you include those who neither like to cook or bake). It has been my experience that rarely is there an overlap—you excel at one or the other but never both. If you watch Top Chef on Bravo you know I am correct—when the chefs have to prepare a dessert they usually have mental breakdowns and oftentimes it is what sends them home on the challenge.
Bakers like precision. They like instruments of measure. They like calculation. They also don’t seem to mind a mess in the kitchen. They like bowls and sifters and machines with hooks. And they like fancy bakery-pan tray things and cookie cutters and bags with tips. They like all things sugar.
I like all things salt. I like to cook. I don’t like messes. Nor do I like using more than one pot at a time. I chop everything on a paper dish and use lots of paper towels. I mix my scrambled eggs in a paper cup. I line my stove top with aluminum foil when I fry. Measuring devices are too confining. Following recipes with exactitude requires too much commitment and too little room for creativity.
That’s why I am not a good baker, That’s why my baking specialty is Aunt Jemima Cinnamon Coffee Cake that is mixed in a plastic bag and then baked in a disposable paper pan in the toaster/convection oven— both the pan and the plastic bag full of cake mix is enclosed in the box. Add 1 egg and ½ cup milk, squish it in the bag and bake that puppy for 20 minutes and it is done. And the entire cake only measures 6 x 8 inches so it is perfectly sized for snacking. It is my favorite—especially with my daily 2:00 cup of coffee. I have tried other mixes but they yield too large of a cake, they are not cinnamon-y enough, and they are too sweet—and they are messy--trust me—I have tried them all. Aunt Jemima Cinnamon Coffee Cake mix is perfection.
The problem is that the cake mix is difficult to find. I used to purchase it regularly at the Food Basket, a local IGA, but the Food Basket closed. Shortly afterwards, I found it at Wegman’s in Bethlehem, PA. So when I would visit Sam at Lehigh, I would stock up—I would buy 8 boxes at a time—which inevitably caused the cashier to say out loud: boy you really like this cake mix don’t you? But then Sam graduated-- which might have ended the supply but for the fact that at Weis’ in Lewisburg PA, where Briana went to school, they carried not only Aunt Jemima coffee cake mix, but they also carried Hershey’s cinnamon chips—another rarity. But Briana graduated from Bucknell this past May and Kara attends school in Atlanta so my cake mix supply is now officially cut off.
You can buy just about everything at Amazon. Just type what you are looking for in the search box and one click later there is a list of vendors. And yes, they have Aunt Jemima Cinnamon Coffee Cake mix. But it is expensive, and I must order a dozen boxes at a time, so the shipping is even more than the price of the cake mix. But convenience and desire has its price.
My very good friend Amy, after work not too long ago, stopped over for some coffee (actually tea in her case). I had baked. When she saw the Aunt Jemima coffee cake on the table she got a little teary-eyed (okay not really—I am being dramatic-- although I did detect a distict change in emotion). She was touched. She understood. Our friendship had progressed to a deeper level. Amy was cake-worthy. And not everyone is.
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