After having moved to our very own new home which is equipped with a fancy stove and oven (in my standards fancy is anything big, shinny and nice to look at haha) built in the kitchen, I have developed a new passion – baking. It all started with the thought of making use of something that was already there and the thought of not wasting a good home appliance. So there I was, having no experience at all of even lighting up an oven let alone setting up the right temperature to bake anything, I found myself vigorously searching the net for recipes which (I think) are simple enough for me to follow. Lucky enough for me, a good friend of mine decided to start a food blog and the recipes that he had in his blog were easy enough for me to do (or otherwise I sometimes abuse our friendship and ask him to explain further the process which are too complicated for my inexperienced baking skills or request him to post a recipe of something that I really want to try).
I remember all too well the very first time I tried to bake I tried to make some cinnamon rolls (taken from Allan’s foodblog www.champoradoblogger.blogspot.com). I have followed each and every instruction from the recipe but I was not satisfied with the outcome. We were able to eat the rolls but they were tougher than how I wanted them to be. Then after asking my friend what went wrong, I realized that I made a mistake in choosing the correct ingredients (it does’nt help that I need to translate the ingredients to Dutch or otherwise find the Dutch counterpart of the said ingredient). From then on, I have researched a little bit more and practiced a bit more and finally I got the cinnamon rolls that I want. Then my ever supportive honey bought me baking tools (tools that I don’t even know how to use or have never even seen before) and so I just had to learn how to use them and find recipes where I would require them. And as they say, all else is a history, I found myself a new passion – something that frees my mind from it all.
I realized that baking is a subtle art that is very addictive – it’s like crack if you’re a junkie (what a comparison!). The thing about baking is that it gives you an elated feeling after having labored your way through a recipe and accomplishing the right (or in this case - yummy) result. I just found myself looking for recipes to bake every single week since I’ve tried to bake. In fact, sometimes, I even manage to whip up a goodie after I come home from the office (I’m even planning to make my very own Spanish bread - which Junfer has been bugging me to make for quite some time now- after I post this J). It always fascinates me how a powdery thingy (flour) – after adding a couple of other ingredients – could become a nice looking piece of bread or cake. And another thing that I love about baking is that I get to make those things that I only buy from bakeshops before from the humble pandesal to the extravagant chocolate cake. Above all, the nicest perk of knowing how to bake is that I can create all those treats that I used to love when I was still living in Manila that are not available here. Of course it always helps that you have a hubby who tells you that the things you made are perfect and very palatable (although I know a lot of them – especially during my first few tries – were nowhere near perfection to say the least).
I am really looking forward to my next big baking challenge, I told Junfer that I will not buy a cake for his upcoming birthday instead I will try to make his favorite chocolate cake for him. I’m really tempted to cheat and buy an extra chocolate cake and put it on the fridge just in case but then again I think not otherwise it will not be as challenging as it’s supposed to be.
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