Baking and Intimidation

I've never considered myself a baker though I love to bake things – cakes, cupcakes, cookies – things that are pretty and look like they were somewhat difficult to build.  I like doing it not because I love to eat them (which I do) or love to give them away (which is nice too) but because I never thought I could do it before.  Do you ever see these amazing baked goods and think, “they must have a lot of time on their hands to make that amazing thing” or “there must be some magic tools required or professional training involved”?  I was so enthralled with the idea of whipping up glamorous and delicious sweets but always assumed I could never do it myself.  Then one day, I had the crazy notion that I should try and make a cake.  Not a boxed cake but one where I measure the flour and the sugar and all that good stuff.  And then I decided to make frosting from scratch to go with my non-boxed-cake-mix cake.  I know it sounds silly but for some reason the whole ingredients to glorious confection process was totally intimidating to me and by simply making a homemade cake, baking became demystified.  I also learned that it isn’t really that hard, especially the icing (just whipping cream, sugar, vanilla) and that it tastes so much better.  So, after I made this simple vanilla cake with whipped vanilla frosting and layered with raspberry jam, it was on to other cute confections that scared me so.

First homemade cake - I whipped the cream by hand because I didn't even have a hand mixer at this point - it took WAY too long to get "soft peaks to form"

Since then, I've had fun trying to make other treats, not all of them successful (i.e. the St. Patty’s Day cake-pop disaster), but all of them were experiences that gave me confidence just because I tried.  The successful ones give me the immediate satisfaction of seeing what I could create if wanted to.  It’s really fun to impress yourself!

 

 

note that my photography is slowly improving as well - so much to learn!

Baking is a lesson to me,  you can make beautiful things happen with only two ingredients: wanting to and trying to.  Instead of assuming you can’t or that you just don’t have the necessary skills, equipment, know-how, whatever – just try to do it (I'm not just talking baking here).  Do it for you.  Life is too short to hesitate because of intimidation.

I’m still learning and just having fun.  I've never done a pie so I want to try to make one soon!  Oh, and I have some more sweets in mind inspired by my favorite fashion!  I’ll be keeping you posted on the outcome – both good and maybe not so good:)