When is it ok to buy new pans?

From ruth_117 — Blog by Ruth Newman

March 14, 2009

I really try, really I do! I try not to buy new kitchen gadgets that will only clutter up my already stuffed apartment kitchen. But then the perfect idea comes along, like using some of my stawberries (frozen from last years picking) and making an angel food cake for my co-workers. It would be a way to look forward to summer as we are suffering under the latest Canadian cold spell (it was -40 with windchill again this week!!)

My only problem with this is that I do not own an angel food cake pan. A one-use-only item if there ever was one. Not only that but with the wierd shape, not a pan I can easliy hide among my other pans. I could have used my bundt pan but I had done that before and it was a pain to get the cake out. No if I was to get an angel food cake pan it would have to be one with a removable bottom.

So without completely making up my mind about the pan, I went shopping for the ingredients. I bought the cream for whipped topping, the eggs for beating into marshmallowy foam and the pastry flour to keep it all light and fluffy. Then, as I was heading back, I just thought I would look at the Thrift Store. “Maybe someone had got sick of their’s never fitting in their cupboards and donated it,” I thought. I could justify a cheap used pan. But, alas, there were no cake pans in among the mismatched dishes and dented pots. By then though I was in hunting mode. There was a discount designer store just one store over that I had found good kitchen stuff in before. Yes, they had a pan. The Perfect angel food cake pan, with a removable bottom! The price was reasonable, the timing perfect, everyone would love the results. I bought it.

Looking back I am happy with my decision. The cake turned out beautifully and everyone enjoyed the treat. The batter whipped up so tall it would never have fit in my bundt pan. And I found the place to put it, high at the top of a wobbly stack of roasters, cookie tins and trays deep in the storage closet. And who knows, maybe I will make angel food more often now.