The Secret Ingredient To Baking

My mother always use to tell me the secret Ingredient to baking is to use magic. I never understood what she meant by using magic to bake, that is until she told me what the magic is.

Baking with my mother has always been the greatest joy of my life, and it still is as an adult. I continue the tradition of baking with my daughter Emily.

My fondest memory I have of baking with my mother is during the holiday season. I would wake up early on Christmas Eve, join my mother in the kitchen, and we bake together.

My mother would lay out all the ingredients on the kitchen counter and she would tell me a secret. my mother would say "Evie, there is a special ingredient I use and that ingredient is called magic."

I look curiously at my mother and she smiles. She tells me. "Evie, look around you and tell me what you see."

I look around the kitchen and I tell my mother "I see sugar, eggs, milk, flour, and butter."

"Yes you do. Those are the basic ingredients, but there are more ingredients."

I never understood what my mother meant by there are more ingredients. She explains it to me.

"Evie, look all around you. What do you see?"

I look around the kitchen.

"I don't see anything."

'Yes you do honey."

"We are standing in the kitchen and there are a lot of condiments on the counter."

"That is correct. The secret to baking is to use the magic, and the magic to baking starts in the kitchen."

When my mother told me the secret to baking is to use the magic I was confused. I didn't know what she meant by that, but when she told me the magic to baking starts in the kitchen, then I finally understood what she meant.

The kitchen is the center of the house, it is where everything comes to life, and know I'm going to teach Emily all about the magic to baking.

It's the day before Christmas and I'm in the kitchen getting everything ready for the morning. I take out the dry ingredients and leave them on the counter.

There everything all set for tomorrow. It's going to be a great day, just me and Emily baking.

It's Christmas morning. I get up from bead and head straight to Emily's room. I knock on the door.

"Come in."

I walk inside Emily's room. I see she's already up.

"Ready."

Emily nods.

Me and Emily walk together to the kitchen. I turn the lights on. Emily is surprise to see the ingredients and all sorts of condiments on the kitchen.

"You don't waste anytime do you mom."

I begin to laugh.

"This is how your grandmother taught me how to bake."

"Cool. Where do we begin?"

I tell Emily there is a secret ingredient we use when we bake. I see Emily's eyes lighting up.

"What is the secret ingredient?"

"The secret ingredient is magic."

Emily looks at me the way I looked at my mother when she told me the secret ingredient is magic.

"Mom, are you okay."

"Yes sweetie I'm okay. I know this sounds crazy."

"It is crazy. What do you mean by magic?"

"When I was your age, I asked your grandmother the same question and know I'm going to ask you the same question I asked."

I tell Emily to look around the kitchen and to tell me what se sees.

Emily looks around the kitchen and she tells me she sees eggs, butter, milk and flour.

"Those are the basic ingredients to baking. What else do you see?"

Emily looks around again and her eyes light up.

"I see you emptied the shelves and took out all sorts of condiments."

"I did. There is more."

"I don't see anything else."

'Yes, you do Emily. Look at where you are standing?"

"We are standing in the kitchen."

"Exactly Emily. Do you see what I'm talking about?"

I take Emily's hand, I explain to her "the kitchen is the center of the home, where everything comes to life.

"Everything comes to life?"

"Yes Emily. It is where we put all these ingredients you see around you together and we make delicious food. It's how we bring food to life."

Emily is looking at me like I have two heads.

"I know this is crazy, but I learned to love baking using the magic and I love your grandmother for making baking fun."

"Lets get to work mom."

Me and Emily get to work making our favorite holiday cookies, gingerbread cookies.

I gather the ingredients to make gingerbread cookies which is butter, brown sugar, eggs, molasses, flour, ground ginger, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt.

I instruct Emily to take out a bowl, the first step is to make the dough. Emily takes out the bowl and puts it on the counter, next I tell Emily to put the butter and sugar in the bowl and mix it until it's light and fluffy. Then I tell Emily to add the egg, and molasses. Next I tell Emily to combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt and I tell her to mix it.

The next thing I instruct Emily to do is to cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator because the dough needs to hardened.

"How long do we have to wait?"

"About four hours."

Emily covers the bowl and puts in the refrigerator.

While the gingerbread dough is in the refrigerator me and Emily bake a chocolate cake. I let Emily do this all by herself. She knows how to make a chocolate cake.

When I see Emily in the kitchen, I see myself. I see myself singing and baking. It makes my heart happy.

"All done."

"Good now let's check the gingerbread dough and you can put the cake in the oven."

The gingerbread dough looks good, another 30 minutes and it's done.

The 30 minutes are up. Emily takes out the chocolate cake and I take out the gingerbread dough.

"The chocolate cake is done."

"The gingerbread dough is ready."

I set the baking sheets and I take out the cookie cutters. and the dough. I roll out the dough and hand Emily one of the cookie cutters. We begin to cut the dough into different shapes.

We finished cutting the dough into different shapes and place them on the baking sheets. I put the cookies in the oven. Me and Emily wait 10 minutes.

Once the 10 minutes are up I go to the oven and check on the cookies, they are all ready. I take out the cookies. Now we are ready to decorate them.

All the decorations are on the counter. Emily begins to decorate. She loves to decorate all the cookies by herself.

This Christmas has been the best ever, spending time with Emily is my greatest joy and teaching her about the magic and the secret to baking means everything to me.

My secret Ingredient to baking is the magic, and the magic begins in the kitchen.

THE SECRET INGREDIENT TO BAKING IS THE KITCHEN