My friend Elise is the chief baker and proprietor of Cream and Sugar Bakery in Portland, Maine. I want to tell you a little bit about Cream and Sugar Bakery, but first I need to tell you a lot about Elise. I first met Elise twelve years ago. At that time, my diet consisted of chicken, frozen Ellio’s pizza, giant blueberry muffins from Costco, and Lean Cuisines sprinkled with “parmesan” from a green cylinder. I was a boxed food aficionado who had no idea what real food tasted like. It was really ugly.
How ugly? One night I had Elise and her husband over for dinner at my apartment. In the interest of serving something “fancy” (as I knew Elise had discriminating taste), I prepared salmon with dill butter and asparagus. Sounds tasty, right?
I thought so too, until Elise, holding up her fork with a piece of limp asparagus hanging off, quizzically asked, “Is this asparagus from a can?” I was embarrassed to admit that indeed the soggy, green spears were from a can. I just didn’t know any better.
Elise was never judgmental about my eating habits. In fact, she never said a thing (except for when I would add water to my oatmeal because I was afraid of milk). Occasionally, though, she would open my eyes to the quality and power of whole ingredients. Once, in honor of my 27th birthday, she made me a lemon cake with raspberry filling. FROM SCRATCH. Having spent my entire life eating cakes from a box or from the local supermarket, I had no idea cake could taste so good. No idea. I will remember that cake forever.
After a few years inside the beltway on the policy circuit, Elise moved to Portland, Maine to start a family. Done with scatter plots and regression analysis, she opened a baking business, taking cupcake orders and selling at the farmer’s market alongside Monument Square. If you ever wander through the Portland farmer's market, or find yourself in need of a delicious cake for you son's birthday, look for Elise. You can find her at www.creamandsugarbakery.com.
