Mad about Baking

Valentine's Day comes early this year... these heart-shaped shortbread shows how crazy I am about baking now ; )


Recently, I’ve been very inspired by a friend, a homemaker who got hooked on baking, and a few bloggers who seem to be full time bakers! What they post on their blogs were really nice and looked so delicious… so much so that I also went a bit crazy and baked three new things this week. This is something which I’ve never done on a working week except during festive occasions or the President’s Challenge where I usually sell my bakes. [One of my new year’s resolution is to cook or bake something new every month. I’ve far exceeded my target for this month, having baked/cooked 8 new items!]

Unfortunately, only one of the new bakes turned out nice. My new shortbread. And I made it heart shape with some raspberry jam in the centre in celebration of my hot hot passion for baking ; ) Well, it’s not perfect yet. The dough was too soft but it tastes buttery enough and it’s not too sweet. This is the third shortbread I’ve made and the only that’s ‘successful’ even though I’ll probably put a bit more flour in future. Shall try using rice flour which some books claim to help improve the taste.

The other two bakes I made were chocolate banana muffin which was not moist enough. I think it’s because I tried to marry two recipes for a chocolate muffin and a banana muffin and it was a mismatch! Plus I probably overmixed the batter, resultig in many holes in the muffin. Fortunately, it was still edible. Next time, I will add more oil and milk to improve it. As I’m very weight conscious, I usually try the ‘healthier’ recipes or low fat options which requires very little oil or butter and eggs. Unfortunately, things that are delicious are usually unhealthy with more butter and fats.

I saved the worst bake of the week for last. Yesterday was a disaster – spent 40minutes kneading a bread that turned out inedible. Wasted my whole afternoon and got a scolding from my mom for wasting ingredients and my time. Sigh… My recent encounters with bread has not been good. Last week, I tried to make foccacia which also turned out to be a failure which I had to throw away. Maybe I need to attend a one month course on bread making. But it’s pretty expensive and since I’m planning to start my kids’ yoga class again on Saturdays, I will not have any time for baking classes. Nevermind, I shall try again next week and see if I give up baking bread forever.

When I took these chocolate banana muffins out of the oven, I thought they smelt and looked good. Alas, looks can deceive. But I'll certainly try again ; )