Scene: college apartment with four girls in it, ’79 or so. I loved to bake; Kay tried very occasionally, mostly cookies, but pretty much left the oven to me.

One day, though, she decided to make some I think it was banana bread, but some type of quick bread, anyway. Only instead of putting in the 1/4 tsp of baking soda that was called for, she put in 1/4 cup. The loaf rose beautifully (um…) and she was quite proud of herself. She invited all her roomies to dig in as she sliced us each a piece and put them on plates. Hey. We were being high-class here in the solemnity of the occasion.

Roommate #1: “Um, Kay…”

Roommate #2: “What did you DO to this?!”

Roommate #3 (that would be me): “That’s really good, Kay,” (finishing it off), “can I have a second piece?”

Gaack. It was as bad as you think it sounds. But I was nothing if not a loyal friend; Kay and I had been roommates since our freshman year, and I wanted to encourage her to keep trying what I enjoyed doing. I didn’t want her baking career to stop cold on the spot.

Ever since that day, I have not cared for the taste of soda in food. Especially bread. If the recipe calls for it, I substitute baking powder. Chocolate chip cookies? Why do that to a good cookie? Don’t tell me it’s to neutralize the acid, I know the theory, theories don’t make food taste better, soda is soda, I make cranberry orange bread without the stuff and it’s wonderful my way and that’s about as acidic as you could ask for.

Now. Here, from the chocolateandzucchini.com website, is the world’s best blueberry cake. I notice that it has a smidgen of soda in it right now; the author has put it in and taken it out from time to time, trying to decide. My copy is printed out from when it wasn’t in there. I can guarantee you (taking a bite) that you just can’t improve on it my way. And half a cup of butter to three cups of blueberries? How can you go wrong? I use a non-runny plain (but definitely not nonfat) yogurt, frozen berries.

Go ahead, try it. Impress the people who live at your place.