Baking Paper. I get a package of it at the supermarket all the time. It's a great tool for wrapping up leftovers; and it's great for creating beautiful, homemade gift tags and other gifts.
When I first started baking, I had no clue if I should use baking paper or parchment paper. I'd seen someone else wrap their cake in parchment paper, and it looked nice, so I thought that was the way to go. The problem with parchment is that it's very difficult to remove it from the cake. I had to try it at least once, but eventually I learned my lesson and now I only ever use baking paper.
It's a common practice to wrap a loaf of bread with a sheet of baking paper before you bake it. It keeps the bread from getting soggy until you're ready to bake it, but it doesn't have to be a loaf of bread! You can use it to cover a pie, a cake, a cookie...the possibilities are endless!
I've been lucky enough to bake with my mother, who taught me everything I know about baking. I learned to bake bread by watching her make it. I learned to bake cookies by watching her make them. I learned to bake cupcakes by watching her make them.
I've been baking for a long time, but it wasn't until I had my first child that I really started to understand baking. I was about 4 months pregnant with my daughter and I was sitting at the kitchen table one day when my husband asked, "We should bake more". Before too long, he was making carrot cake and there we started getting boxes of Red Velvet Cake mix, which is my go-to cake for birthdays and showers.
That was over 14 years ago, and I'm still baking for my family. No matter how many people I'm baking for, I still try to make the best darned cookies the world has ever seen. There's a time and place for everything, and baking is no different. There are some occasions when you need a cookie that crunches together, and there are other occasions when you need a nice, soft, moist cookie.
It's that little moment when I get baking paper that for more than any other part of baking, time freezes and I tend to reflect on the very happy times in my life.