I admit it. I love my life here but I really miss baking. My freezer in Canada always had brownies, hello dolly squares, blondies and nanaimo squares. Baking cheesecakes and dump cakes was a regular activity. I miss making my mom’s cinnamon twists and shortbread, my Auntie Jan’s honey cake and my Auntie Anne’s carrot pudding. You can’t make sex in a pan the same way. Challah and hamentashen? Impossible!

So many ingredients are not availaeble here. Cool Whip and Angel food cake mix were staples in my cupboard. Cocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, Heath toffee bits…………oh but I could go on and on. Even butter and marshmallows are of a different consistency here. Flour and sugar are also different.

I was at a marketplace at La Catrina last week and was excited to see that a lady was selling nanaimo squares and lemon poppy seed loaf. But………..both were the consistency of lead and nowhere near as tasty as what I once baked in Canada.

Let’s talk Rice Crispie squares. I buy them in the package. They’re a little too sweet, but as I mentioned above the consistency of the ingredients changes the result completely. The only puffed wheat cereal you can get here is sweetened, so there goes my mom’s chocolate treats. Pie fillings and ice cream sauces are also unavailable here. There goes carmelitas and dump cakes. What? No Crisco? There goes homemade pie crusts. Graham crackers are nowhere to be found. Yes, baking is a challenge here.

In the grocery stores cakes that are popular are tres leche, or soaked in milk. Gooey and slimey on the bottom? No, I prefer light and fluffy. Cinnamon buns are non-existent here, and I miss that cream cheese icing on top too. But I did find a Ghirardelli brownie mix the other day at Soriana, and Philadelphia cream cheese. So I’m going to attempt some swirl brownies instead of my usual apple enchiladas. Now if only I had caramel sauce……………..