Riddle me this, cooks and bakers

[lillypaddle]

Why does everything take me so long? Granted, I live in an apartment with a tiny kitchen, but still ...

I just made a spice cake, which I haven't had since my mother was alive some 35 years ago. Will make cream cheese icing as soon as I take a bit of a break.

Anyway, not counting time to bake it, prep time was supposed to be 20 minutes.

Took me 2 hours at least to make this cake. And it's not just this particular cake, it seems all recipes take me much longer than stated. Does anyone else have this happen?

[Walleye]

1. You're doing great. I just made a tuna salad and I'm exhausted

[lillypaddle]

4. Hey, tuna salad

always takes me over an hour to make, considering chopping everything.

[LakeArenal]

2. Think about competition cooking and baking.

45 minutes.
Takes me that long to get the ingredients together.

[lillypaddle]

5. sure 'nuff

Now I feel better. Thanks!

[luvs2sing]

3. In my experience..

“Prep time” seems to assume you’ve really done all the actual prep work. It’s just getting everything together in one place. I estimate how long it will take to cook or bake something by reading the recipe, adding up the cooking times given in the recipe and then adding 20-45 minutes for getting all my supplies together and prep.

[lillypaddle]

7. There ya go

and I'm right on time then.

[royable]

6. I've been cooking all my life, main dishes, sides, desserts...

I've never seen a prep time that came close to how long it takes me. Usually at least one and a half to two times as long.

I don't think, though, that prep time is meant to include baking time. It's supposed to be the time to mix ingredients and get the pan into the oven.

Prep time doesn't include realizing your sugar jar is almost empty so you need to empty another bag of sugar into it, or rummaging through your spice cupboard and the overflow spice cupboard for the strange spice you haven't used in a recipe in four years, or replacing a fuse after running your hand mixer and microwave at the same time blows it out.

[lillypaddle]

8. Excellent points!

I had to look up my bundt pan size compared to the cake pans called for, and had to open new sugar, and then look up bake times for a bundt pan, and for some reason it took me a while to find the nutmeg. Damn, I'm quicker than I thought!

I love you guys.

[Retrograde]

12. Or remembering that the mixing bowl

that you had planned to use had an unfortunate encounter with the floor last month and the only other bowl you have of suitable size has something in it so you have to wash it, and while you're at it you might as well do the rest of the dishes. Or that you could have sworn that you had ground cinnamon, but you can only find cinnamon sticks in the spice cabinet so you either have to leave it out or grind some yourself.

I think the people who write these recipes have a whole team of people to gather all the ingredients, measure them out, and do the dishes afterwards.

[lillypaddle]

15. Yes, this sounds like REAL cooking to me

and it's so true.

[NewHendoLib]

18. If it is a familiar recipe, have everything assembled and have done it before, I find cooking pretty

quick and easy. I've cooked for decades (and am also a chemist - so very accustomed to measurements, processes, etc) - and also tend to memorize the recipes. So - times for cooking and baking will vary widely based on experience - size of kitchen (how much you need to move about), etc.

You also get to figure out hacks, short cuts, time savers after while. I made my daughter's birthday cake last week - too about 10 minutes to get into the oven once I got all of the ingredients assembled. All the dry goes into one bowl, all the wet into the other, add dry to wet, stir, into the pan it goes.

[trof]

9. The faster I go, the behinder I get.

Old Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch) saying.

[CrispyQ]

10. I always wondered why my prep time was always so much longer that the recipe stated, too.

Recently, though, I've been watching videos & I realize that they have everything greased, cut, & measured out & their prep times match what I've been reading on recipes all these years.

[Warpy]

11. I thinkonce you've got the ingredients measured out and the pan greased up and ready

the prep time shouldn't be more than 20 minutes. However, we all do those measuring and sifting and greasing and farting around steps at different speeds. 2 hours would be at the outside for me, I usually take about 45 minutes to get a scratch cake into the oven.

[chowmama]

13. First time takes a lot longer

Also, I think it never counts basic prep. After you've measured, chopped, prepared the pan, preheated the oven, etc., etc., - then, it takes 20 minutes. Slightly false advertising. You come to expect it after a while. Don't believe them.

I hope the cake is great!

[lillypaddle]

17. Cake was super yummy, thanks!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. Honestly, I can't begin to imagine why you are taking so much longer.

Size of kitchen shouldn't be an issue. I have a small kitchen, which means everything is close to me, and I know where everything is.

If you really haven't made that cake in 35 years, I can somewhat understand why it might take a bit longer than usual. But otherwise, I can't begin to imagine where you are going wrong. For decades I've been telling people that baking a cake from scratch should take no more than ten minutes longer than from a box, and will be vastly, vastly better.

It just doesn't take that long: Take the flour out of the cupboard, the sugar, take the eggs from the fridge. Milk if needed, cocoa if you're making a chocolate cake. I'd go on, but I don't know your specific recipe.

I will say this. I make two and only two cakes from scratch. One is the one off the back of the Hershey's cocoa box, the other is a Texas Fudge cake. Both I bake as sheet cakes as I learned decades ago I'm an utter failure at layer cakes. Both are amazingly simple and no fail.

Some years back I'd volunteered to bake goodies for my son's class for Valentines Day. To my distress, we volunteer baking moms were told to make cupcakes from (I hope I have this right) cherry cake mix. I was distressed AND annoyed, because I stopped using boxed cake mixes many years before when I'd noticed that they had a chemical taste I didn't like. However, I did bake the cherry flavored cupcakes, but made the icing from scratch. Okay, I suppose a cherry cake batter could be made from scratch, but I didn't research that.

Another baking from scratch story. When we had a celebration for Mom's 80th birthday, some time back, my sister who was hosting it (thank you Sister) asked me to make two cakes for the crowd. I did. Both off the Hershey's cocoa box, and if you'd been there that day you would have the choice of chocolate cake with white frosting, or chocolate cake with chocolate frosting -- a basic butter cream confectioner's sugar frosting, or something else that she made. To her astonishment, every single person who took a piece of cake finished the entire piece. She was used to baking cakes from a box, and even when serving to a bunch of kids for a birthday party, the kids would eat maybe half of the piece of cake.

I have long noticed the chemical taste of cakes baked from a commercial mix, and the sad thing to me is that even small,local bakeries have switched over to using mixes. Sigh. Which is why I rarely get anything from a bakery any more. I can do vastly better myself, and in the categories I don't bake, say apple pie, I will just do without. I will say that last Thanksgiving I had that meal at a restaurant in Vienna, VA, and had the absolutely best apple pie I have ever had in my life. I'd consider going there every year just for the pie, although the basic meal was itself very good.

[Demsrule86]

16. The key to baking is to assemble your ingredients and utensils in advance...then it is

a matter of adding as directed-measuring, mixing, and baking. Pre-heat your oven when you begin the assembly.

[Marthe48]

19. My friend doesn't understand why

her whole kitchen gets messed up when she heats a Lean Cuisine meal in the microwave.

I cheat on my prep. I casually gather the utensils and ingredients, so when I am ready to put the recipe together, like magic, everything I need is laid out

[lillypaddle]

20. I wonder how long

it would take your friend to bake a spice cake.

[Marthe48]

21. Days

lol

[Nac Mac Feegle]

22. There is a Frech term that describes the situation

Mise en place.

Everything in place, roughly.

Getting all the ingredients, utensils, pots, and pans laid out and ready to use. The ingredients measured, the prep and cooking pots / pans ready to use, the utensils at hand, etc...

It's basically cheating by being organized, all the parts are pre-measured and ready to use right at hand. That's how they figure out the prep times. They usually have subordinates do all the 'grunt' work, so the Chef can put on the show. We don't have that luxury. I have to move the laundry rack from in front of the spice cabinet, ask my wife where she hid {put away} particular pots / pans, and try not to trip over the cats' water dish.

The stated prep time?? Not gonna happen.

[lillypaddle]

23. LOL

Thanks for posting.