Let her eat cake

I like to make things, especially my own food. I believe that it is quickly becoming a lost art. Also making my own food is a lot cheaper than eating out all the time, and in these times frugality is the new black.

As anyone who reads this knows I can, freeze or otherwise preserve food during the summer and fall, with varying degrees of success. Part of this is because I am new to this skill, but the other part is because I try to preserve things in small quantities. For example my friend who cans tomatoes, does so in 1 litre jars, my tomatoes are canned in 500 ml jars. I tend not to need a litre of canned tomatoes. This need to make things smaller extends to most of my food.

Most recipes are far too much for one person, thus I am usually on the look for good recipes that are for 1 or 2 people. I have found some cookbooks that I regularly use and through trial and error (usually a lot of error) I have modified a number of my favorite recipes. Most meal type recipes tend to make 4 servings. In general I find that these are the easiest recipes to half. Yes there are some recipes that I make the entire amount, chili is one, but this is because I freeze the unused portions and later have them for lunch at work.

However I find making a couple of cookies or one portion of cake, or even just a bit of bread to be much more difficult. I have found that you cannot just half baking recipes. The few times I have done this have not been pretty or tasty. So when I want a cookie or two, or some cake I usually go to the baker and buy something. Really this can get expensive and while individual cookies are easy enough to get, but 1 piece of cake can present some problems. Yes I could go to Safeway, but then what do I do with the plastic clam shell. As to making a normal sized cake, again it is only me and I do not like having the leftovers in the house. Far too tempting.

However I have found a cookbook that is looking promising. Small Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos. I am not sure how things will turn out, but perhaps there is cake in my future. I'll let you know the results.