I am reading Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.  I’m not sure which one of them resposible for the text composition, but as it’s in the first person it must be one or the other of them.  Whichever it is, I want to go hunt them down, try everything that they make, then beg for a job.   His writing is phenomenal.  It is concise and direct and perfectly embodies my thoughts and feelings regarding the complicated emotions often elicited in the journey of creating a recipe: frustration, indignance, satisfaction, and triumph all in a pat paragraph, page after page.  Thank you, thank you…this is wonderful!

            “My cake patience is wearing thin.  I can no longer pretend to be enthralled with a cake that is not really a cake.  If it’s in the shape of a designer shoe or is a lifelike replica of a favorite pet, it is really less about the cake and more about the design.  It is form over function, cake as afterthought.  This does not happen to other foods.  I have yet to attend a party where the chef has sewn together a string of delicious steaks into a golf club or fedora.  I have never seen (and hope to never see) a baby rattle composed of salmon fillets.  But cake abuse has no limits.  I admire the design and architecture involved to create these stunning showstoppers, but they are, too often, not something I would want to eat. 

            I am still a cake pusher.  I adamantly believe that cake is the great centerpiece desert for any affair, however ordinary—not just birthdays, graduations, and holidays.  Too often, we relegate cake (primarily layer cake) to event status, but I like to serve it just for its own sake.  I am too impatient to wait for the next wedding, or birthday, or engagement, or holiday.” (italics mine).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Exerpt from Baked Explorations

Here’s how else I know the recipes are going to be amazing: it is the first time I’ve seen a whoopie pie that calls for scratch-made marshmallow filling (and believe me, I've hunted) and there is a simple recipe for applesauce included in the Caramel Apple Cake. Wow. 

Excuse me…I’ve got some exploring to do…..