Obsessive Opinions

I love baking. It is as simple as that. It took getting a finance degree, a law degree and passing the bar for me to realize that all I really want to do is bake. This discovery may have come too late, but maybe not. So with the hope of someday opening a bakery, I have been using my friends and family as test subjects for my baked goods. I appreciate their sacrifice of eating endless carbs for the sake of my baking. Lately I must have lapsed in my baking because my friend Kaäre mentioned that he bought some brownies at the store, which made me sad for two reasons: 1) I should have known he was in need of some brownies, and 2) I should have taught my friends that store bought brownies are sheer blasphemy. Some of the grocery store chains don't even make make their own baked goods in the bakery, they come in frozen and ready to frost (ex Fry's b-day cakes).

While I am totally fine with people disagreeing with me, I have some very strong opinions of store-baked goods and maybe I will help one person by sharing the following:

1. Most store-bought / pre-baked brownies are crap. Please don't waste your money.
2. While most things I prefer made from scratch, brownies are an exception. Brownies from scratch are awesome, but they are a lot of work and most good ones have LOTS of chocolate in them, so they can get pricey. If you have the world's best brownie recipe and want to share it, please do. Until then, I'll stick with a mix.
3. All brownies mixes are not equal. Find the kind you like, but Ghiradelli are amazing. Costco used to sell them in 4 packs, but I think they have switched to Hershey's (which are also good).
4. Cake mixes are super convenient and the yellow ones are hard to beat for a quick moist b-day cake. I can tell its a cake mix, but I won't judge.
5. Store bought frosting is almost always a bad choice. C&H has a (uncooked) buttercream frosting recipe on their 1 lb boxes & their website that is an easy alternative. I will however admit that there is something addictive about the Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip frosting. I'm sure it's the chemicals.
6. Chocolate cakes are always better from scratch.
7. Betty Crocker's Oatmeal Cookie mix is also super addictive. There is something about adding my own stick of butter that makes me think that using this mix is not selling out.
8. If you do bake your own cookies, cookie scoops are awesome. (get a good one because I keep breaking my cheap ones)
9. An offset spatula is a must for frosting a cake.

I'll stop there because the people who care about this stuff probably already have their own opinions, and the rest of you probably have better things to do with you time than read about my obsessions. To my friends & family in the future: if you want some cookies, brownies or even a cake: put down the plastic container of store-baked junk and call me.