a recipe conspiracy

I have come to the conclusion that there is a recipe conspiracy going on. What is a recipe conspiracy, you ask? Well, it begins when I request a recipe for some baked good, like a cookie or a cake. It might be a family recipe, it might be that baker's specialty, but in the interest of carrying on baking traditions, I want that recipe. So, I get the recipe, but here's the catch: it's hand written. And herein lies the conspiracy. A hand written recipe (as opposed to a photocopy of a recipe from a cookbook) ensures that I can never totally duplicate the baked good in question. Maybe the recipe writer omits helpful hints or maybe even some necessary ingredient or technique so that my cake or cookies will never ever be as good as theirs. You may think I'm overreacting here, but let me present the evidence.

Take Exhibit A:

This is a chocolate layer cake, a recipe that comes from Drew's mom (Kathleen). She has made it every year for his birthday, so naturally, it's a tradition that he'd like to continue. Drew lives 3000 miles away from home, so his mom couldn't bake him this cake last January. I have made this cake 2 or 3 times, and my version is terrible. I loathe my version of this cake. I dislike it so much that I tried my hardest to convince Drew to let me use a difference recipe. But he refused, because THIS is the chocolate layer cake he eats every year for his birthday (well, except for the last one when I made a chocolate bundt cake instead).

Here is the recipe conspiracy: the recipe is hand written, thus ensuring that my version will never be as good as his mom's. (I'm sorry you had to find out in a blog post Kathleen, but I just had to let you and everyone else know) My version is dry, but Kathleen's version is light, moist, and fluffy. I can't stop eating Kathleen's cake, but I can barely eat one slice of mine. I've tried more than once to make this cake, but each time it's just not very good. I am vigilant about monitoring the baking time, but no matter what, the cake is dry (I don't have this problem with anything else I bake, but the way). A recipe conspiracy? I'll let you decide.

(Let me reassure you that Exhibit A has nothing to do with the fact that it is Drew's mom and her recipe. There's no stereotypical mother-in-law animosity here. I am just saying that I am suspicious of hand written recipes. Take Drew's dad's recipe for macaroni and cheese (hand written as you may have suspected). Drew followed the recipe, and the first thing he said when he tasted was "well, it's good but not as good as my dad's." See? Another recipe conspiracy!)

Next, I have Exhibit B:

I had a craving for my Grandma C's sugar cookies. When I was a kid, she would bake them up and put them in me and my sister's Easter basket. And so I went in search of a bunny cookie cutter because I wanted to make bunny cut outs just like hers, with chocolate chips for eyes and all. So Grandma sends me the recipe (hand written), and I bake them up. The cookies are good, but they are not quite like hers. It's been a while since I've eaten her sugar cookies, so I think the flavor is similar, but there is something different about my version (maybe it's because I didn't roll out the dough to an eighth of an inch like she recommended) A recipe conspiracy? Perhaps.

And finally, here is Exhibit C:

The candy cane cookies are, in the end, really a success story. But the first time I made them was a disaster. The cookies were gross, fluffy, and inedible. I abandoned the recipe and didn't try again for a few years until I was living in California. This time, I called my Grandma and had her walk me through the recipe. Turns out that she creams together the shortening and sugar with a wooden spoon, not an electric mixer as I had done the first time. This helpful hint, by the way, was not written in the recipe. Ha! A recipe conspiracy averted. I am proud to say that I will be able to carry on the candy cane cookie tradition, just like Grandma makes.

In the end, maybe the important thing is that I'm carrying on baking traditions, whether or not my version tastes as good as my grandma's or Drew's mom's. My stuff still tastes good and I'm still passing along their recipe.