My kitchen needs a vacation. Did I write that out loud? Well, my kitchen does need a break, and so do I! It's the middle of May and I have reached an exhaustion level that hits every year around this time. It's self-imposed, and I am not whining. I ask for this, it seems. People ask me to make cakes for their parties, and I usually say "Sure" (though lately, I have had to say "Can't do it" a few times). I'm not a professional baker, and most of the cakes I make are as favors to friends and family (and there are many!). Often, people have one of my cakes at a party and ask "Can I have a card?" to which I respond, "I don't have a card. I'm not a business." No, believe it or not, pretty much all the cakes on this blog's slideshow are baked for celebrations of people I know well and love. Since I work full-time and am "Granny-Nanny" much of the rest of the time, I don't have the time, means, or luxury of becoming a baking business. I do sometimes dream of the possibility. I even wrote a business plan for a bakery as part of my masters thesis. I have all the ideas percolating in my head about what it could be, and where, what it would look like, how it would feel, and how it would operate. I imagine large glass containers filled with assorted home-style cookies atop a gleaming display case of simple cakes and pastries, in a Broadway (Saratoga) store front with old-fashioned charm and a black-and-white checkered floor. It would be simple and unassuming, like one of those 1950s soda shops where children spin on stools along a long, cool counter. It would have beverages for young and older customers, and home-baked biscuits for their dogs. Then I think, "Who's getting up at 3 a.m. to do that baking?" and "Who's going to be there at midnight swabbing the deck?" and "Who's going to be making those night deposits?" and even "Who's going to work 7 days a week and never take a vacation?" Well, as much as I can envision all the pretty pictures of my own beautiful if not imaginary bakery, I cannot fathom being (at age 58 and advancing) the person responsible for all the blood, sweat, and tears that would surely be required to be successful at such an endeavor.
So, I continue to bake "for the love of it" though sometimes the demands exceed my energy reserves. Tonight I have two cakes in the oven. One is for my friend Kim's sister who's expecting a baby in July. The other is for a friend of mine who works in an academic department at Skidmore, where I also work. She wanted to surprise her graduating seniors with a special cake, and I am very happy to do that.
May and June are always busy cake months. In addition, there are always coffee cakes, cinnamon rolls, muffins, and scones (some pictured above) on the to-do list. When I am not baking, I think about what I will be baking when I am baking again (how grammatically incorrect is all of that sentence?). It must be some kind of obsession. I can't stay away long. It reminds me of when I was younger, and I was a painter. I loved painting, and I'd finish one and think, "I'm going to take a break for a while" and then the next painting started to take shape in my mind. I gave them all away!!! It's the same with cakes. I always think of what I can do to make it better, next time.
I think it's time to buy a canvas and dust off the oils and acrylics.... Now, if I can just find that beach-house studio loft with morning light. Time to go to bed and dream some more!
