My baked goods

I like to bake.

No wait, scratch that. Let’s start over.

I know how to bake.

 Valrhona Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

I would like to say that I am naturally gifted at baking, but it's far from the truth. I still remember my first few attempts. My sponge cake tasted like cookies. My cookies tasted like bricks. My dog turned her nose up at my cake and continued rooting through garbage for scraps. 

I gave up soon after.

Valrhona Chocolate Orbit Cake, davidlebovitz.com

Sometime a couple of years back, I stumbled upon David Lebovitz's blog. He's an ex-pastry chef from America currently living in Paris. What first drew me to his blog were not the pastries that he makes, but the life he leads. 

                                                                      

Lemon Bars from davidlebovitz.com

 He writes about the trips he takes around France. He reminisces about his years working at Chez Panisse. He bitches about his tangles with the French bureaucracy (Affectionately termed WTF, or his Welcome to France moments). 

Or most of the time, he simply pens any interesting encounters, or thoughts that he have. He derives his recipes from his stories, and the experiences that come alongside his recipes are what attract me to dust off my baking hat once more.

                                              

Cue David's Racines Cake, a flourless chocolate cake recipe he found scribbled onto the walls of a men’s bathroom in a restaurant. It’s surprisingly good.

  

Green tea cupcakes, NOT from a toilet. (I have a bad feeling I need to add this disclaimer to everything I bake from now on)

As an impressionable young thing entranced by his tales and the desserts that he make (recipes included!), I did the only rational thing possible: learn how to bake, so I can recreate the desserts. That took longer than I expected. Naively, I thought "It's just like chemistry! Measure this out, add this to that, and voila! A perfect French dessert." 

Except... not quite. I was never really that good at Chemistry anyway. Although I did enjoy playing around with the litmus papers.

I like to feel that I'm getting better at baking. I enjoy baking now because it's challenging. It’s satisfying when I get it right. It's not relaxing. Not for me anyway. I swear constantly in the kitchen. Out loud if I'm alone. Under my breath if I have company.  

                                                          

Scharffenberger brownies from David Lebovitz

Chocolate Chubbies, Sarabeth's Bakery

Tiramisu

A Gingerbread Village. Inhabited by Dragons. 

Who took my firewood?

It’s a journey, one that has been getting prettier, and also more delicious along the way. Or at least I think so, if my snobbish pet is a form of indication.