A reflection on stand mixers

Once again, I am delinquent in my cake update. Apologies.

I feel as though this chapter is somewhat of a reprimand. How many times have I lamented not owning a KitchenAid? Dr. Robinson apparently has also always wanted a KitchenAid, but had to settle for a cheaper but sturdy and efficient stand mixer. When this mixer died, she excitedly went to buy a KitchenAid... only to find out it was too big, too excessive, and full of "flaws" her old mixer didn't have. She actually bought one 4 times... only to return each of them. She ended up settling for the new model of her old mixer, which, to be fair, she was also displeased with, so it might not entirely be the fault of the KitchenAid. But still... perhaps I should keep my appliance envy in check. In most cases, my hand mixer and a spoon are sturdy and efficient enough to get the job done. (But I'm pretty sure I still want a KitchenAid one day...)

Cake Day was Saturday. Tim, Maureen, Chris, and I had planned another cooking adventure for dinner, so naturally, I had to contribute cake. Due to a full day, I got up early just to make it. I've been particularly surly regarding work lately, and I found it a bit sad that I while dread dragging myself out of bed in the morning to go to work, getting up to make this cake was easy and seemed like the perfect way to start my day. Perhaps I should have gone to culinary school...


This week's recipe was an Irish Buttermilk Bannock, a flat, bready cake related to the scone. There were surprisingly few "wet" ingredients, making the batter very sticky. The recipe suggests topping it with blackberries, but as the cake itself wasn't very sweet and there were no instructions for the topping, I spread a layer of left-over powdered sugar glaze over the top and made a blackberry sauce by cooking together blackberries, sugar, lemon juice, and corn starch. The color of the blackberries was a beautiful against the cream and gold of the cake, and everything blended together quite well. We ate almost the entire thing, so it couldn't have been too bad.


It was a simple recipe (stand mixer free), and was a good finish for our meal. Nothing fancy or extravagant or fancy about this Cake Day. Well, nothing special aside from the fact that there was cake, which, in my opinion, can make any day a little special.