Monday, March 26, 2007

The wonderous smell of baking

Whenever we had unplanned guests, my mother would hop into the kitchen and bake a cake in a jiffy. Though she has never been interested in cooking in general and we have grown up healthy thanks to never over-eating because of a series of terrible cooks .. baking was something my mom liked and we looked forward to .. fighting over the little bit of batter which could not be scrapped into the baking dish (which never ceases to amaze me because there is no other way I'd ever have raw eggs!).. the smell and anticipation of the end result.. and finally the awesome cakes. I always thought that when I grow up I'd bake every week and there would always ben home made cake at home. It never happened with the series of bad oven houses we lived in.. and ofcourse the general lack of enthusiasm.

Till a few weeks back. When our current oven stopped working and the landlord replaced it with a swanky new oven with lots of nice features we have no idea how to use. It was a lot of hard work dealing with the delivery people and the builder ...but finally it was installed and we figured out how to use the absolute basic manual mode. Since then, baking mania has hit me. In two weeks I have tried a cake, brownies, muffins and today got back early from work and tried yet another cake. Well, part of the enthusiasm is from the absolute frustration of not getting it right. Especially when till last year I could atleast bake a cake! It's always been so simple, but am just messing up on the cakes not rising or it becoming too sweet..I can't get a hang of the ingredients here .. and so far its been a series of experiments. For a novice who is messing up I have extreme confidence, and called some friends for a muffin breakfast. Well the muffins never rose.. but good ingredients taste nice anyway. . and baking usually smells good. So the experiments continue.. and when I finally manage..I shall post a picture. Till then, let me sit back and take the nice smell .. since I have no idea what its going to be like this time!

5 comments:

30in2005 said...

I'm loving baking nowadays although it has never really been my thing. I think it has to do with winter and the warmth and smell of hot chocolate and vanilla essence mingling. I'm eating more banana walnut cakes than there are monkeys! No wonder the gym is not working (grumble grumble)...

You wrote: "(which never amazes me because there is no other way I'd ever have raw eggs!)" - I'm guessing 'never ceases to' is what you meant? Else I am lost.

Akkare said...

Before Orwell left, he was going through a baking phase as a way to relieve stress. So I was getting up in the morning (ON A WEEKDAY!!) to freshly baked muffins.....almost feeling bad he got the job!!

Nee said...

Oh, you are making me want to get the handy mixing bowl and whisk out...hmm, maybe it's time for those banana muffins again!

Mr. J said...

I'm hungry!!

sinusoidally said...

Wow, you are on a baking spree. I have never baked a cake ever.