As a little girl growing up, I have vivid memories of my Mum baking at home. The warmth of baking, us kids loitering around and patiently waiting to taste the remaining batter from the mixing bowl and spoon after she had poured into the pans was heavenly. I have to say these memories always…and I mean ‘ALWAYS’ give me a warm, fuzzy feeling 🙂

Now I don’t know how this connects but in some way I always felt safe, cared for, loved and most of all happy even as I watched her icing those famous ball gown cakes. You know you’re an 80’s kid if you remember those princess cakes where the gown was the cake and you stuck the mannequins upper body into the cake and iced the whole thing! I feel old saying this but ‘those were good days’. The things we did for the love of sugar and all things sweet 🙂 🙂

Unfortunately, these days, you can’t even indulge in a treat without mentally converting confectioneries into hours at the gym. For the health conscious among us, I’ve heard this saying over and over again,’Its the only way to live longer and without some form of medication’. But its still such a pain….albeit a good one.

A lot of friends of mine and co-workers seem to think that baking is harder than cooking. I used to think so until I watched a couple of episodes of Chopped; a cooking show where the contestants are given a limited number of ingredients (that in my rational mind don’t even make sense) and asked to create a meal. It was then I realized that baking is an easier option than cooking!!

What Makes Baking Easy-er…. 🙂

• There are set measurements on the ingredients. How hard can it get? I remember on a few occasions trying to get cooking recipes from an older relative and it was so difficult because they… ‘cooked from the heart’. Translation: You would have to watch me do it a few times to know what it is you’re making…rofl 🙂 🙂 Now, I am no psychic but every bodies heart is  wired differently and it depends on what time of the day you’re cooking from ‘that heart’…hahaha.

• One plus one is always two. So simple Beyonce had to reiterate it over and over in a song. What you mix in is what you get. Even if you had a patch over one eye and one leg in a cast, you can still bake the perfect upside down chocolate cake 🙂

• You can always make do. When you go over board with a little more flour, sugar or spice; that treat can still be salvaged (to an extent). What I mean is – a recipe can still be eaten without someone ending up in the ICU at the end of the day even though I cannot say the same for several meals I’ve had to churn because they just weren’t edible…and even if I had a dog, which I do not and I tried to ease my guilt by cajoling it to eat the mistake I just made; trust me it would give me that look…the ‘you know this is crap and you’re expecting me to eat it’ look. 🙂

Anyways, we are at that time of the year when the baking frenzy picks up. If you’ve always bought your goods at the store or cajoled that sweet aunt of yours to make an extra batch of goods for you, why don’t you switch it up this year. Baking is not hard, its fun! And if you find yourself stressed out from work, family or life; instead of pottery making :/, why not try baking..the results are by far more edible 🙂

Whether you’re making your signature cupcakes for the 1000th time or starting out with regular sugar cookies for the very first time; you are creating something and that’s always amazing. I’ve shared a few pictures of when I made an upside down cranberry cake. Trust me when I say that I’m no expert but that cake was scrumptious.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend! Let me know your thoughts, comments and experiences baking. Feel free to share what has worked for you in the past and what you would like to do better. Ciao until next time!!

Periwinkle Starr