Baking success

While baking expert friends will yawn at this post, it is here because I feel pretty darn good about this latest baking experience. I baked Banana Walnut Muffins..... from scratch. Like I said previously, I said I would and I did it. I am happy to report that I followed my friend's famous recipe with one small exception, I added a quarter cup of chopped walnuts. I did call her mother (another baking genius) with a couple of questions relating to the eggs as to whether they should be room temperature or not. I asked her a few other relatively dumb questions which I will not write here so as to not embarrass myself.

I set out all the ingredients, bowls, pans, utensils and then..... walked in and out of the kitchen several times before taking a deep breath, rolling up my sleeves, and just doing it. I wasn't sure whether to fill them up all the way or two-thirds like I would making cupcakes. The next time I think I will fill them up almost all the way for the nice mound on top. I made a tray of minis for Liam*. As you can see from the picture below, only three were left. Huge hit! I'm so happy that I chose this recipe as my first try at baking something from scratch. Special thanks to my friend Kelly for the recipe and to her mom for the pep talk! It was a pleasant experience overall, and I will definitely be baking more, especially now that I have better lighting in the kitchen.

*After scarfing down his seventh mini muffin, Liam finally discovered the walnuts, much to his disappointment. Still, he ran back for more minis. They're just that good!

Baking in more ways than one

Who bakes in the middle of a heat wave? Me, of course, baking phobia and all. Did I finally lose my mind? Not yet. You see, it was my husband's birthday on July 8th and I thought I would surprise him by baking some cupcakes. Carrot Cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting! Yes, the same ones that I baked for Liam's birthday. Baked from scratch, you ask? Guess again. Well, at least the cream cheese frosting was made by me and not Betty. Now that I have a bigger kitchen, I will someday bake something completely from scratch. I will, too. You'll see.

Happy Birthday, babe.

What could be worse than than baking and decorating cupcakes in this blasted heat? -A three-year old having a meltdown, as in, Liam having a royal tantrum because he wanted us to celebrate his birthday, again. (He turned three in January.) He would not let up until we relit the candle and had him blow it out. Just what you need during a heat wave. Right?

Three

Time sure flies when you are having fun! It flies by way too fast when it comes to your wonderful children growing up. Liam turned all of three years old on January 17th. If I think about it long enough, I will start to cry. We can hardly believe it!

We had an intimate celebration with just this little family of three when we came home from Church. I baked a cake which, according to my husband, was tasty. The birthday boy even gave me a two thumbs up. Then again, he pretty much always does that when it comes to my cooking. (Thank you, my sweet baby boy!) Leave it up to me and the baking "phobia", to mess up a cake from a cake box. I only had to add a couple of extra ingredients to the packaged cake mix. How could I go wrong? Well, the cake turned out dense at the bottom, fluffy on the top middle part, and dry on the edges. I want to blame the oven temperature, but in the end I can only blame myself. I have a lot to learn about baking, even from a boxed cake mix (the size and temperature of the eggs, the exact temperature of the oven, etc.) I also discovered that I can't spell. (See picture below.)

It was a delight to see Liam's excitement at the realization that he was no longer "two and a half," but three years old now. (He repeatedly sang Happy Birthday.) So, we decided to celebrate again a few days later with his little friends from the Church playgroup. My birthday boy helped to prepare the gift bags and the carrot cake cupcakes. I am happy to report that the carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting did turn out okay. Thank goodness! We made plenty so that our friends could take an extra one home with them (in a small Chinese cardboard take-out container).

Thank you to Lindsay, Garrett, Caleb, Milena, Lani, Naomi, Michiru, Emily and Elizabeth for making his day so special.

Baking newbie

When it comes time to making a meal, I can whip one up rather quickly from whatever I have on hand, and the end result is almost always quite tasty. When it comes to baking, however, I will wander around and stall just to get out from baking. The weird thing is that I love browsing through cookbooks and watch cooking shows about baking. I even own 2 baking pans (rectangular and round), 2 muffin tins (small and regular sized), one cookie sheet (that I have used for everything except baking cookies), one cooling rack, one heart-shaped baking tin and one Bundt cake tin. The Bundt tin I used only once and not for baking a Bundt cake, but for making ice garlands for punch bowls (for my wedding reception). Yes, I can be pretty creative when it comes down to it. I just have this baking phobia. (I wonder if there is an actual word for it.) Anyway, over Valentine's Day weekend (in Spanish, "El Dia del Amor y la Amistad") I decided to bake a cake in the shape of a heart. This is what it looked like: (the candies are M&Ms)


It was brought over to a friend's house as dessert. I got rave reviews and everything. "It's so pretty! ... Mmm, delicious! ... It's so moist and not too sweet..." You would think it would have made me feel great and more confident about baking. Actually, I was feeling kind of uncomfortable about all the compliments, until one dinner guest had the nerve to ask if it was baked from scratch. Well, I finally exhaled and confessed to it being straight out of a Betty Crocker box. I quickly added though that the pale pink buttercream frosting was made from scratch. The frosting was indeed delicious, I have to say. To my relief, someone exclaimed, "Hey, that's the best part!" (Thanks, Emily.)

Oh well, it's a start. Here's hoping I can overcome my fear of baking and whip out a real cake from scratch.