End Of Year Reflections and New Year Cake

It is that time of the year to reflect on the past 365 days that have gone by. This year was a year of milestones for me. A year of firsts, a year of reunions, a year of dreams come true and an end to an era. It was a blessed year and I am beyond grateful for all that I received and experienced!

There was a first baking experience in February and the launch of a baking addiction. There was a wedding to plan, a dress to be bought and a dream shoe that showed up at my door step in July for the occasion. Friends from afar and near planned a wonderful bridal shower in May and reunions with college buddies! The biggest reunion of all was to see my sister, mom and my high school bestie . And of course there was a groundbreaking event, that ended the era of the single gyal...the wedding to the man beyond my dreams in September! I pray 2013 is filled with as many experiences!

For the new year eve celebrations, I attempted to bake a cake for the evening. I started with no decoration vision (first bad mistake) and didn't start looking until after the cake and layers turned out so good. A frosted cake and some frantic Pinterest searches lead to this mess.

I almost didn't share this picture but since this is my memoir of baking adventures, the failures need to be acknowledged. Second mistake was messing up the writing on cake and attempting to scrape it off (you see the patches on top?). But hey...that's what adventures are for. To learn from the mistakes.

The cake was cherry vanilla from Annie's Eats and I followed her recipe to the dot. It tasted great too!

Happy new year!!! I hope 2013 brings us all more happiness and love!!! I look forward to growing as a baker in this new year :))

Holiday Baking

The holiday season is upon us...Merry Christmas! This is our first married Christmas together and I love our Christmas tree.

Being an avid fan of Pinterest, I had a lot of ideas for what my holiday baking list should entail but I kept it simple. I started with some simple sugar cookies from Better Homes and Gardens and these gingerbread cookies. I followed the recipes as close as possible and the cookies turned out great.

I attempted to decorate the cookies as well and I spent a lot of time watching videos and reading blogs on how-to decorate cookies. I went simple again, using a standard royal icing recipe (below) and made two different consistencies (piping and flooding) for each color and took a shot at it.

Can I say not bad for the first time???  I was very proud of them being my first take on decorating cookies. I will definitely need to practice more in the future. 

Finally, I made these peppermint bark brownies and some peanut butter chocolate balls for my husband. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures before I packaged them up.

I sent holiday treat bags to my new in-laws, friends and family. I was very happy they all enjoyed the sweets!

Now I have to decide what to make tomorrow for Christmas dinner at my sister-in-law's.

Happy Holidays again!

The Beginning

Let's start with a confession. I have a few 'mis' conceptions about blogging and I feel like they might hold me back as I embark on this adventure. I think blogging is for creative, artsy and chic individuals. I am not even close to any of these. I'm the least creative person you will ever meet (seriously - just ask my husband!), and art and I don't seem to exist in the same realm.

I think blogging is for interesting people with things to share in creative ways, but I am excited about learning to bake and documenting my progress (hopefully) that I can ignore the fact that I am not that interesting. For the first time, I have found something that I'm passionate about and enjoy doing to a point that I want to share it with others. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy doing research and I'm passionate about trying to find a cure for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Schizophrenia... but baking resonates on a different level. I feel accomplished at the end of a long baking day and love sharing my baked goods with friends and family.

As I go through my favorite baking and food blogs, I try to remember that they were beginners at some point too. I hope as time goes by I will learn to create beautiful and tasty dessert and be more confident in my abilities.

Here is the first cake I ever baked and even though it is not good looking, it is a reminder of how far I have to go and I can't wait!

February 2012: First cake attempt