Baking Frenzy I

I'm not sure what it is, the new kitchen, the free time, or the new oven but I've started to learn how to bake. From scratch. I know, I know, its not really called baking if its not from mixing your own flour and baking soda but for me, I use to fail miserably at making desserts. Just mixing pre-made powder with eggs and milk gave me a hard time. But, I decided I would try again, of course with the help of my pro baker friends. Little did I know, that baking had so many tricks to it.

A few things I learned:

- Everything needs to be at room temperature! The egg, the milk, the butter. Or else, as my lovely friend put it, the baked goods will not rise properly.

- Make sure you have precise measuring cups and spoons. Eye-balling not allowed.

- Spatula. Spatula. Spatula. Gotta have one.

- A smaller mixing bowl. If you use a larger one, your mixer will end up hitting the bowl more than than batter.

Ok, I'm sorry if most of you are going, 'that's commen sense! How could she not know!'. Well, I really didn't and this all goes to show that you can never stop learning.

Real Baking #1: Peanut Butter Cookies (minus the Hersey Kiss)

The first batch turned out to be a bit brittle and when we squished it down with a knife, some of them fell apart. The second batch however seem to hold it together and turned a light golden brown. Bravo to us!

Real Baking #2: Strawberry & Blueberry Muffins

Seeing that I have all these baking ingredients in my kitchen now, I can't help but want to bake more. So I made strawberry and blueberry muffins. Take a peak. They turned out amazing and super soft.

The picture on the left is all the good stuff jumbled together, ready to go into its little wax paper holders on the right. And ta da!

I am actually not afraid to bake anymore.