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  • Vanessa McCray

    BATA, cookie, food

  • Vanessa McCray

    BATA, cookie, food
March 15, 2010

Baker keeps BATA drivers, staff happy

By VANESSA McCRAY

TRAVERSE CITY -- Valma Davis lets her baking do the thanking.

The Traverse City woman's oven is often in overdrive, and she loves to give away the goodies. Among the frequent recipients of her from-scratch generosity are Bay Area Transportation Authority employees. She rides the bus to her part-time job at a local fast food restaurant and expresses her appreciation by baking up batches of cookies for the drivers, dispatchers and other BATA bus workers. Her husband Dean delivers the sweets along with a copy of the recipe.

"I had to start using the BATA system, and I wanted to come up with a way to say 'Thanks,'" Valma said. "I try once a month to take in something for them -- cupcakes, cookies, cake -- if I get a new recipe, and I'm dying to try it."

Seizure concerns limited Valma's ability to drive, and diabetes requires the couple to carefully watch what they eat. She began baking regularly for BATA last summer. For Christmas, she and Dean prepared a meal of sloppy joes, chips, relishes, pudding and various sweets and brought it to BATA. Dean played his harmonica during the holiday gathering.

"She did it because she's a customer of ours. She's just a really, really heartfelt person," said Kim McCloskey, a bus driver. "She's a wonderful person."

The baker shies away from that kind of praise, but fans of her treats said she deserves it.

"She makes a no-bake peanut butter cookie to knock your socks off," said BATA dispatch coordinator Jim Johnson.

That particular cookie, "super simple" but "so good," is one of her most requested, Valma said. She collects recipes from friends, co-workers, cookbooks and magazines and always follows the instructions exactly.

"It's got to tell me the amounts. It can't tell me 'a pinch,'" Valma said.

She seldom buys a box mix and said baking from scratch might be why some appreciate her effort so much. Valma credits her mother and home economics class for teaching her baking basics. She picked up the rest of her kitchen skills on her own.

Valma knows her treats have gone over well when her bus driver picks her up in the morning and greets her by saying, "You did it again."

"They're accusing me of making them fat, but (they say), 'Don't stop. We love it,'" she said.

Davis uses crunchy peanut butter in this recipe:

No Bake Cookies

4 c. sugar

1 c. milk

2 sticks margarine

1 c. peanut butter

6 c. quick oats

2 t. vanilla

Boil sugar, milk and margarine hard for two minutes. Mix in peanut butter, oats and vanilla. Drop by heaping teaspoon onto wax paper immediately.

Three Hole Chocolate Cake

3 c. flour

2 c. sugar

1/3 c. cocoa

2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

2/3 c. vegetable oil

2 T. white vinegar

2 t. vanilla

2 c. water, room temperature

Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Make three holes in dry ingredients and add oil, vinegar and vanilla into each one.

Pour water over everything and mix well. Batter will be somewhat thin.

Pour into a greased and floured 9-by-13-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until done. Cake is very moist and keeps well.

Frost when cool.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1&1/2 c. butter-flavor shortening

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

3 eggs, well beaten

2 c. quick oats

1 c. nuts (optional)

2 c. raisins, puffed in boiling water and drained

3&3/4 c. flour

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. vanilla

2 t. soda

1/4 t. salt

Cream together shortening and sugars in a very large bowl. Add eggs, oats and nuts to creamed mixture. Stir in the remaining ingredients until well mixed.

Roll dough in small balls and dip in sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes (for soft cookies). This makes "a lot."

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