Time for reflection

It's finally December, the last month of the year 2012. The time has passed so fast that I didn't even realise it's almost Christmas. Do you feel that so? Perhaps it's this month that I always start to feel nostalgic or is it the age? Nevertheless, it's been a good year though. Many things have happened, good or bad but still, life must go on. It is definitely the time for some reflection for New Year resolutions. 

Many a times, I have always thought about a string of resolutions telling myself that A must be done, B should be done, C, D, E....Z and when I'm done, I realise I don't even remember A anymore. Yes, indeed life can be simple if we only allow ourselves to be simple :) I love this motto and will try to apply it to my life whenever possible. Why complicate things when it is meant to be simple? Simplicity is afterall, bliss.

Now, pray tell what are some of your new year resolutions? I already have a few here to get started with.

A. Live life to the fullest - smile hard, play hard, enjoy hard, love hard and most important of all, live life as if it's my very last day :):) Now I really like this first one.

B. Have more courage - this is probably interlinked to A. Since I'm going to want to live my life as if it's my very last day, I want to have more courage to do things that I never thought of doing, never thought I could do or never even had the idea that I could ever do something.  This is nothing to do with my bucket list (if I ever dare to make one ;)) If you have followed some of my earlier posts, you would probably know that I attempted to do quite a few things I never thought possible. Yes, I will continue this resolution throughout the whole 2013.

Nope, this is definitely not a closing post for the year. I'm still keeping it coming :)

Lately, I was pretty intrigued by seeing so many people posting up pictures of their decorated cakes, cookies, cupcakes and even yule log cakes. I thought I'll try my hand at some of them too. So I went for a cookie decorating class just to have a feel of how decorating cookies would be like. Check out my pictures below.

See what some of my classmates have done. They look pretty don't they?

Did you spot that cute rainbow bunny at the picture below? Yes, the one with the ribbon!! It's so cute!!

As an end to the post, I must show you this picture of my very 'smooth' looking bread bun that I made this evening. Totally different from the last few buns that I made as they looked abit crater-like.

Could have gone slow on the baking time though. They did look a tad too brown I feel. Nevertheless, bread baking is no longer scary to me. It is not that hard after all and I like the fact that it nurtures patience, something that I feel I could have done more with ;P

Oh well, till my next post. See you!!

Cakes are good for the soul

You must have been wondering what I have been up to lately. I have been studying a lot. You would probably find it strange that I am saying that since I literally swore not to touch a book ever since June. Well, almost, but I'm sure I have the exception for cook books, recipe books, any book to do with cakes, baking or cooking. Those few categories I definitely have the palate (pun intended) for them :)

As I was saying, I have been studying a lot about cakes and baking techniques as well as know-hows. I will elaborate more on baking techniques and know-hows in my next post.

"Let them eat cake"

Marie Antoinette

Honestly, until I read "A World of Cake", I never knew that there is so much common with people from different parts of the world in connection with cakes. Cakes help to liven up celebrations, bring along their cultures and heritages in different parts of the world. This sentence that was the most inspiring was "The cakes we create in our own kitchens can transport us anywhere in place or time, from modern day Tokyo to medieval England, from colonial Indonesia to ancient Egypt". 

In this age and time, we are able to recreate recipes from all over the world in accordance with our personal preferences, tastes and local ingredients. Yay world, we have come so far and this just concludes that:

"Cakes are good for the soul"

Krystina Castella

Interestingly, over the centuries, various cakes all over the world have been invented and created as a result of various cultural movements. Ok don't go to sleep, this is not a history lesson. Or at least not yet. 

For example, from 1200 to 1400, as sugar became abundant for European upper classes and was introduced to Asia, mooncakes were created. 

Source: http://www.best-singapore-guide.com/mooncake-festival.html

And if you are a fan of soft sponge cakes and blackforest cake, you would probably be interested to know that it was created in 1500s as a result of cacao beans that were brought to Europe.

Source: http://www.farmhousecookery.co.uk/cakes.html

Source: http://www.microwaverecipescookbook.com/cake-recipes/black-forest-cake

I guess the best thing you can relate our cakes of today like bundt cakes, chiffon cakes, German chocolate cakes, Pavlova and red velvet cake is modern appliances like refrigerators, electric mixers (Kitchenaid, Kenwood) and modern ovens are invented. Thank goodness for them!! :)

Source: http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/190599/chocolate-bundt-cake

Source: http://www.freerecipes.org/red-velvet-cupcakes/

So after reading so much about various types of cakes, it's high time we celebrate them! Yes, these cakes do have days or holidays held specially for them. Let me bake one soon so we can celebrate :) Join in the celebrations with me if you can.

Afterall, we can have our cake and eat it too :):)