Banana cake and the baking journey.

Three large ripe bananas hugged each other on my fruit tray; they were firm with small dark spots on the smooth yellow skin. I Googled a recipe for banana cake and came up with one that used oil and only two eggs. An hour later a brown beauty sat sighing softly on the kitchen counter; the house that had darkened in the afternoon, courtesy dark June clouds, suddenly brightened with the aroma of bananas wafting through the rooms. It tasted just as good.

I have a recipe book that I faithfully followed as a young wife; the curly writing of my mother’s hand guided me through recipes for her sponge cake and plum cake, sweet and salt biscuits. She also gifted me her folder of recipes from a baking class her sister went to in Lalbagh and a set of cyclostyled (do kids today even know that this word means?) sheets that she received when her Ladies Club conducted baking classes. She has marked corrections and alternate measures, changed baking timings and made tiny notes, thus ensuring I have recipes that will work.

I baked independently in Germany using the gas cooking range. Thanks to Karin and Barbara, we celebrated Ps first birthday with three German cakes! I still bake the marble cake and apple pie. I’ve never found fresh cherries like those from Barbara’s home, so I’ve never baked a cherry pie again. 

I attended a day’s course on baking at the Volk Hoch Schule and came back with a slice each of some ten exotic German cakes, that I’ve never tried again because they are so complicated. (The class was fun with the instructor inquiring from me if my religion allowed the tasting of cakes with lots of liquor! Black forest cake with its signature Kirch Wasser is unbeatable. I said I didn't mind, of course!)

My OTG is about 17 years old and looks sturdy and capable as ever. My recipe book has collected recipes from dear friends and I’ve gone on to bake many cakes. I still feel the warm glow when I peer into the deep oven and watch a cake rise. Dieting teenagers love cakes and low calories, and somehow before I befriended Google I wasn’t sure how to achieve that.

Today anonymous people share fantastic recipes and when I bit through the raisins and walnuts in the warm slice of banana cake, I sent a ‘thank you’ across the WWW. 

I’ve noted this recipe down in my thick bound notebook with my comments and corrections. Who knows, my children may want to bake someday following a recipe written in my curly hand writing.