Sofie Elise, born Tuesday the 15th of April at 9:52 AM Dutch time.
17 April 2008
14 April 2008
Cake.
I love cake; it's delicious. I also like to bake, almost as much as I like to eat what I bake - the only problem with liking to bake is that I live in The Netherlands. People here do not bake or cook - they pretend to bake or cook. Dutch supermarkets are set up, quite cleverly, so that one can bring home groceries and put on a lovely meal without actually having gone to any real work. There is a prepared version or boxed kit or a mix for anything you could want (particularly powdered mixes and seasonings), from salads and soups to baked goods, international cuisine, and traditional Dutch meals. I've never seen a people so infatuated with pretending to cook. It's like someone gave them all Easy Bake ovens when they were kids and they never quite grew up. They even have cake mixes that are all mixed - you literally just cut open the pouch and pour the ready-made batter into a pan and bake.
But I digress. The problem, as I said, with liking to bake is that I live here. As much as I like it here, you cannot be a serious cook of any sort in a small town in Holland. You simply cannot find ingredients to make whatever you want from scratch. My latest odyssey has been the quest for baking soda. Our grocery store does not sell it, either in store or online (we have our groceries delivered each week), and my mobility is rather limited at the moment, so I can't easily search elsewhere. I thought I was challenged with vanilla extract and allspice (I had my 'drug' mule bring both over from England), and I was irritated with the baking powder that only comes in little pre-measured packets, not cans. But the problem with not having baking soda is that all the cake recipes in my Betty Crocker cookbook called for it, and I will not eat cake-mix cake. So here I sit, wanting cake for days and days, finally giving up the search and hunting down new recipes online last night. After almost an hour, I finally found a lemon cake with lemon icing (icing, not frosting) that I had all the ingredients for. It was heaven. Moist, fluffy (but not TOO fluffy), and surprisingly refreshing; it has a perfect moist crumb and we ate some warm right out of the oven, thick-sliced and dripping with lemony icing, while we played rummy last night. And then we split another piece, because it was just so good - there are few things in life quite as good as warm fresh cake, and it's only warm and fresh for so long.
I am kind, so I will share. Have a slice of cake.
In the meantime, can anyone tell me where to find baking soda in this bloody country?
But I digress. The problem, as I said, with liking to bake is that I live here. As much as I like it here, you cannot be a serious cook of any sort in a small town in Holland. You simply cannot find ingredients to make whatever you want from scratch. My latest odyssey has been the quest for baking soda. Our grocery store does not sell it, either in store or online (we have our groceries delivered each week), and my mobility is rather limited at the moment, so I can't easily search elsewhere. I thought I was challenged with vanilla extract and allspice (I had my 'drug' mule bring both over from England), and I was irritated with the baking powder that only comes in little pre-measured packets, not cans. But the problem with not having baking soda is that all the cake recipes in my Betty Crocker cookbook called for it, and I will not eat cake-mix cake. So here I sit, wanting cake for days and days, finally giving up the search and hunting down new recipes online last night. After almost an hour, I finally found a lemon cake with lemon icing (icing, not frosting) that I had all the ingredients for. It was heaven. Moist, fluffy (but not TOO fluffy), and surprisingly refreshing; it has a perfect moist crumb and we ate some warm right out of the oven, thick-sliced and dripping with lemony icing, while we played rummy last night. And then we split another piece, because it was just so good - there are few things in life quite as good as warm fresh cake, and it's only warm and fresh for so long.
I am kind, so I will share. Have a slice of cake.
In the meantime, can anyone tell me where to find baking soda in this bloody country?
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