Ah baking with family. We never did it really. One of my grandmother's was never allowed in the kitchen (her husband was a fanastic cook but not a baker); the other was the mother of 7 and didn't have the time or the room for grandkids under foot. (Not an avid baker either with 1 cake recipe, one biscuit recipe and one bread recipe.) My mother worked 40-50 hour work weeks on her feet and so never really viewed cooking as a hobby. Me I started baking for a school project in the 5th grade and never stopped and mom always supported me in this. One Mother's day when I was 13 I stayed up all night to make her croissants from scratch when I had never attempted anything like it and then fell asleep before breakfast and she cleaned up the kitchen. Other than that I made chocolate chip cookies once with my 12 year old nephew. I didn't realize he didn't know the difference between t and T until he put 2 tablespoons of baking powder in some cookies! I ended up scooping too much out and we had trays of 4 inch cookies about a milimeter deep. What my mother did teach me was there's no shaming in using a mix especially if you use homemade icing or adding things to the mix; that rice crispy treats are the fastest sellers at bake sales; that canned biscuits make pretty tasty donuts when fried and coated in powdered sugar; and when all else fails throw it out and order take out. This year for mother's day she got devil's food cupcakes made with a mix with extra butter and a cup of melted chocolate added; 6 delicately decorated with hand piped pink roses on white lace and 18 with a big swirl of pastel pink and white stripy icing from tossing all the leftover pink and white together and then topped with a handleful of mini chocolate chips. Guess which people loved more?

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