Is My Dad Duncan Hines?

My dad would most likely murder me if he knew I was blogging about him.

No, he wouldn’t….but he’d probably be weirded out. He hates social media, as many people from the older generations do. But I wanted to see if anyone else was experiencing this.

Is my dad Duncan Hines?

Now, my dad’s been retired for eight or nine years now and he’s never shown any interest in baking. Cooking, yes. Grilling, absolutely (he’s got a Grill Sergeant t-shirt and everything) but baking?

He left that to my mom and me.

So what happened?

All of a sudden, I’m seeing him in the kitchen, covered in flour, surrounded by spice jars, leafing through old, disintegrating recipes or scouring the internet because “there has to be an easier way to make _________” (fill in the blank).

Now, I can’t blame the holidays for this because it’s has been happening for the last two or three years. It began with peppermint bark, (you should see the kitchen gadgets he got from Amazon to make this – any chocolatier would be proud), then deviled eggs, (I think he got tired of waiting for my sister to make them), then coffee cake (as pictured above and hell, yes, it’s as good as it looks).

Side bar: the price of coffee cake has skyrocketed, like everything else, so Dad took it upon himself to come up with his own. Hell of a lot cheaper and just as good, if not better (sorry, Entenmann’s).

Well, as you can see, my dad turning into Duncan Hines is hardly a bad thing. Mom and I are happy to be the taste-testers whenever he bakes something. But honestly, it just goes to show that no matter how long you’ve been around your parents, do you ever truly know them?

Maybe, maybe not. Me personally? I like the guessing and the not-knowing. It’s worth the delicious surprise when you get a plate full of coffee cake in front of you.

Happy Holidays, everyone!