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Mother’s baked goods

May 5, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Keith Schell

When we were very young, our Mom was generally a stay-at-home Mother, except in the late spring and early summer when she would take a job preparing cabins for a local lodge and getting them ready for the summer guests.

When the lodge cabins were properly cleaned and prepared, Mom would then come back home and the student staff would come in and take over the job for the rest of the summer.

And because she generally had the time back then to be a stay-at-home Mother, Mom liked to bake.

And she was really good at it!

Like Pavlov’s dogs when the bell rang, the mere mention that Mom was going to do some baking the next day was usually enough to make the entire family start salivating. Or, at the very least, look forward to getting home that day to see what was on the menu.

Chelsea buns, sugar cookies, cinnamon rolls, double layer chocolate cakes, fresh bread. A plethora of delicious baked goods made all from scratch. And the heavenly smells from all the baked goods our Mother made.

Walking into our house some days after school could be a delightful olfactory experience.

And my classmates knew my Mother was a good baker. When we had a school bake sale my Mom’s stuff was usually one of the first things to disappear!

I remember on Valentine’s Day in grade seven our Mom baked enough sugar cookies for me to bring a box of them to school to give one each to the kids and the teacher in my class. They were each topped with white icing and four cinnamon valentine hearts. Delicious! When I went around and handed them out to my classmates, I was the most popular kid in my class that day.

My Mother was a very giving person and on occasion liked to donate her baked goods to worthy causes where needed.

We usually knew when Mom was going to do some charity baking and would always look forward to coming home to a counter full of treats the next day.

When we would get home that day from school, we would walk into our house and the kitchen would be warm and scented with the smell of fresh baked goods. The counters would be filled with cakes, cookies, pies, and all kinds of other delectable treats.

After saying ‘hi’ to Mom we would usually go over to the kitchen counters and happily survey her freshly baked bounty.    

Seeing and smelling all those heavenly fresh baked goods in the house usually got us in the mood to do a little sampling.

When we tried to help ourselves to a cookie, we would get a little wrist-slap from our Mother and a stern admonishment from her, saying, “Don’t touch those! They’re for the Church bake sale!” Oh.

Can we have a piece of that still-warm-from-the-oven chocolate cake?  “You can’t have any of that! That’s for your cousin’s baby shower on the weekend!”  Oh.

So how about a little piece of those tasty Chelsea buns? “You can’t have those either! I promised them to your Aunt for her Ladies Club meeting on Friday night!” Hmm.  

Okay, so if we can’t have any of this stuff, what can we have?

“Go over to the fruit bowl and have an apple!”

?? You’re kidding, right??

Whenever this happened, we sometimes got the distinct feeling that the only way we would ever get the opportunity to eat any of our Mother’s delectable baked goods was if we were a charity case ourselves!

Of course, that being said, we were hardly hard done by. We always got our fair share of Mom’s wonderful baked goods as a family and usually more so. I smile at the memory now.

As our Mother has grown older, she rarely bakes any more. The only time she might make something is if everybody was coming home at the same time for a visit and especially if the Grandkids were coming along for the ride. Then she might whip up one of her delicious pans of Chelsea buns or some of her melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip cookies!

And while no one in my family has ever needed an excuse to go home to see our Mother, knowing Mom might whip up something special when you came home was certainly an extra added incentive to go and visit!

All the best,

Keith

(P.S: Luv ya, Mom. Happy Mother’s Day!)  

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