Officially, I started baking at age two. I have the photo, making my own little oatmeal cookies, flattened by a cup dipped in sugar, in a round cake pan. Still make the same lacy cookies, and i have my mom's set of cake pans also. I also bake,cook and teach both professionally, stayed close to the tree I guess. My mother was not only a wonderful cook and baker, she was extremely frugal. A true child of the Depression. Her birthday cakes were frosted with meringue icing and her cinnamon rolls had to be put under lock and key before serving. I am so thankful for memories of her christmas baking. I still love fruitcake because hers was so good. When my boys were little I would mix up a huge batch of the simplest bread dough for them to play with on rainy days. They could build a bread fish or dinosaur as big as could fit in our oven. Even if they did not eat it all, it was theirs and they could feed it to the fish in the river near our home in Japan. Now I bake cookies with my grandchildren and we have tea parties together. I feel the most important thing is not what you make with a child, or how fancy it might be; the doing, the shaping, rolling and baking together is priceless and lasts forever.

• Reply