I Am Baker, Hear Me Roar

[ladysprite]

Any baking endeavor that makes the person in front of you in the grocery line boggle at you in disbelief and surprise is bound to be a worthy one.

I have 48 hours, twenty pounds of flour, ten pounds of sugar, and six pounds of butter. My oven is preheating, and my stand mixer is armed. I've got my apron on, my hair tied back, and a marathon of Top Chef to keep me company.

Bring it on.

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

You forgot "it's dark and I'm wearing sunglasses."

*grin*

[denimskater.livejournal.com]

Did you notice that most places it's cheaper to buy 5 5-pound bags of sugar than it is to buy one 25-pound bag? Weird. Similar math applies for flour.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

...really? You'd think not, because normally the economies of scale work for you (it's cheaper to buy a big, say, can of oatmeal than the same amount in smaller cans).

I suppose 25-pound bags are mostly used by commercial endeavors, which have their own economies of scale (that is, for them, the 25-pound bag might be the small size).

[denimskater.livejournal.com]

I thought the same, but apparently the economy of scale for making/selling the smaller bags overwhelms the economy of less packaging. Then again, flour and sugar are in pretty cheap/easy packaging...so it sort of makes sense.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Hm. I hadn't thought about the packaging. Good point.

[pbrim.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you are buying the large size of anything in the assumption that it is the cheapest per unit, you need to check it out. I don't know whether it's a matter actual costs, or just trying to take advantage of people who assume and don't check. But for the last 5 years or so, I have noticed that the second largest size is often cheaper per unit than the largest.

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's weird. One time when I ran out of vanilla (?!) and had to buy it at the supermarket (rather than do the take-own-bottle-and-fill thing at the co-op, for better vanilla at lower price) I noticed that two 2-oz bottles were significantly cheaper than one 4-oz.

I am so, so obsessive about checking price-per-ounce or whatever unit of measure...

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

Wahoo! I can see the cloud of flour dust from here! Most excellent.

[leanne-opaskar.livejournal.com]

I am so jealous. (: I would love to take the day off and just bake.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*high-fives you*

[gmkieran.livejournal.com]

whatcha makin'? :D

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Shrewsbury Cakes - they're kinda proto-shortbread cookies. They're for an SCA event this weekend; the person in charge of providing food for the tavern asked me to help out.

[jenni-the-odd.livejournal.com]

Bahaha, I love doing that. Given that there are 6 people in my family and we feed our church/respective schools on a regular basis, I have sadly jaded a few cashiers at local grocery stores.

Though the time I was in line with 30 lbs of hamburger, 20 loaves of bread, and 5 dozen eggs and explained to the boggle-eyed woman behind me "It's a really weird diet" was pretty awesome. I think she believed me for just a second.

[droewyn.livejournal.com]

It was fun last summer when we did the Great Oobleck Kiddie Pool Experiment. You definitely get looks when you hit the checkout isle with twenty boxes of cornstarch and nothing else in the cart.

[citabria]

Just ... wow.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yes.

[simplykimberly.livejournal.com]

Okay - so what are you making/did you make?!!? :)

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

About 200 Shrewsbury cakes (a kind of shortbread cookie) for an SCA event.

This was also followed by spending the entire event making meat pasties and apple pasties at a marathon rate for about 4-5 hours.... :)