Skip to main content

Childhood Memories of Baking with Mom

Some of my earliest memories from childhood have to do with mom's baking.  It's hard to pinpoint exactly when it was that I started to show an interest in baking, but I can clearly remember standing on a kitchen chair, back in the 70s, right next to mom as she was either baking a cake or portioning out cookie dough.

Here is mom helping me with a slice of homemade cake for my 1st. birthday.  



All of our birthday cakes, holiday sweets for the family, cupcakes for school P.T.A. events, and milestone celebration desserts, were made from scratch by our dear mother.  Not only that, but mom was a baker to many of our neighbors who clamored for her cakes whenever they needed them. 



I somehow became mom's pastry assistant in the kitchen for some of her biggest projects, such as wedding cakes.  I remember helping mom mix batch after batch of cake batters or cookie doughs, tinting pounds of icing if she asked me to, preparing cake pans for baking, and adding countless sprinkles or decorative toppers to cupcakes for our holiday school parties.

The large pastry boxes which sat on top of the kitchen counter, ready to go out the door, always beckoned and taunted with their sweet icing, sugar sprinkles and whatever else mom added to them.  I secretly wanted to devour those cupcakes before they even made it out the door.

Homemade chocolate chips will always be my favorite cookie.

Trips to her favorite baking supply store were a real treat for me as a kid, because I was able to learn what tools were needed for specific tasks, and which supplies made mom's baking projects effortless.   

 
Kitchenaid Heavy Duty 5qt. mixer.

These days when I visit mom, I always request that we bake a little something, just so that I can use her classic heavy duty mixer.  Mom's 5qt. mixer is so retro, and yet, it looks great in any type of kitchen.  I was lucky enough to have found one of these mixers a few weeks ago, untouched in its original box!  It's perfect (👌).

I treasure the moments in the kitchen with mom, because it's time well spent.  We catch up on family matters while we bake, or we reminisce about a particular event in the past.  Whether I'm standing in the kitchen while using mom's KitchenAid mixer or watching her scoop out some cookie dough onto baking sheets, I'm immediately taken back to childhood.

Thank you mom for all of the great baking memories!! 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank You for Posting!

Popular posts from this blog

Antique Salt Cellars

There was a time when salt cellars played an important role on the dining table for the host or hostess.  As a result of it being such an expensive commodity several hundred years ago, salt was seen as a luxury and it was the well to do that made salt cellars quite fashionable & a status symbol for the home.  A single salt cellar usually sat at the head of the table and was passed around throughout the meal.  The closer one sat to the salt cellar, the more important one was deemed by the head of the household.  Smaller cellars that were more accessible and with an open top became a part of Victorian table settings.  Fast forward to the 20th century when salt was no longer a luxury and when anti caking agents were added to make salt free-flowing, and one begins to see salt cellars fall out of fashion.  Luckily for the collector and for those of us who like to set a table with Good Things , this can prove to be a boon. Salt cellars for the table come in silver, porcelain, cut glass
49 comments
Read more

Vintage Wilton Wedding Cakes

Wedding cakes have certainly evolved over the decades just as tastes and styles have in our American way of life.  There was a time when elaborate & very formal towering feats of sweetness were the standard for every bride & groom.  Growing up in a household where I witnessed several wedding cakes take shape from start to finish, I can tell you  that every single one of these was a true labor of love.  For mom, Wilton was the go-to supplier in every aspect of cake baking, including the wedding cakes which flew out of our house every single year for friends & family.   Vintage Wedding Cake Toppers It’s fun going back and looking at Wilton’s methods and styles for wedding cakes during the 1960s and 1970s.  Back then, the shapely cakes were not simply stacked and covered in perfect fondant the way they are these days, but were iced and decorated with real buttercream, along with a multitude of accessories.  There was even a working fountain available that could b
8 comments
Read more

Collecting Jadeite

With its origins dating back to the 1930s, jadeite glassware began its mass production through the McKee Glass Co. in Pennsylvania. Their introduction of the Skokie green & Jade kitchenware lines ushered in our fascination with this jade color.  Glassmakers catered jadeite to the American public as an inexpensive alternative to earthenware soon after the Depression, both for the home and for its use in restaurants.  The Jeanette Glass Company and Anchor Hocking introduced their own patterns and styles, which for many collectors, produced some of the most sought after pieces.  Companies marketed this beautiful glass under the monikers of jadite , jadeite , jade glass , jad-ite , jade-ite , so however you want to spell it, let it draw you in for a closer look.  If you want a thorough history of the origins of jadeite, collectors’ pricing, patterns & shapes (don’t forget the reproductions in 2000), I highly suggest picking up the book by Joe Keller & David Ross called, Jadei
48 comments
Read more