I believe that most people who love to spend time in the kitchen are either natural born cooks or natural born bakers. For instance, my sister will invite you to dinner, order takeout, and serve you an amazing homemade dessert. I am the opposite. At my house the dinner is always homemade, but there is a decent chance that the dessert came from the local bakery. Baking is a part of kitchen life, though, and we all get the bug sometimes. So many memories are wrapped up with the idea of family celebrations, food, and time in the kitchen. Sometimes I want to taste the cherry cake that has been a family staple since my great-grandmother first made it over eighty years ago without trekking across town and bribing my sister to make it. Since I’m not a natural born baker, I really need the tools I use to be simple, functional, and hardy, so recently I decided to purchase a new stainless steel square cake pan. (more…)