My Dangerous Hobby

No lah... I haven't taken up anything potentially life-threatening like base jumping or shark-baiting. If you read my previous post on 15/3, you'd know that I was starting a... ahem... program to lose some of this extra baggage I've been lugging around. I'm happy to report that in the past month, as a result of my drastically changing my eating habits and snacking on tasteless yet healthy snacks, I've lost around 2kg. Not a big difference, granted, but still a step in the right direction, yes? My pants do seem a bit loose and my wobbly bits aren't quite as wobbly as before, so when I started this new hobby, you can see that I have just cause to panic. You see, I've recently taken up baking.

I've always liked baking, better than normal cooking, actually. I just love that lovely delicious aroma of freshly baked cakes and cookies that fill the whole house. Now, I'm not saying I'm a particularly good baker. Not all my cakes and cookies turn out perfectly. I have secretly thrown out entire batches of cookies that were left too long in the oven. My brownies have been known to be bizarre looking. I've never had any formal training apart from a two-day cupcake decorating course at a local bakery supply shop. I'm more of a trial-and-error type of baker. And happily, my adiks who are my guinea pigs more often than not, scarf down my baking results without any untoward incident. And my butterscotch cake does get rave reviews during Hari Raya. Okay, so the ones who raved were both my grandmothers, but at least I do have a good cake to be remembered by. "Kek ni... cucu cek yang buat sendiri!" *applause*

Okay, so, what sparked off my rekindled romance with baking was my purchase of an electric oven recently. It's just a tiny little thing, a 32l with a rotisserie function, but it has served me splendidly. Already I've churned out a batch of brownies (had to start with brownies, my fav dessert), muffins, bread pudds and cookies. I've posted pics of my baked creations below, but unless you specifically request for them, I won't be posting the recipes. That's like taking credit for something that is free on the Internet, which is where most of the recipes come from, anyway.

And please pardon them if they look a bit dodgy and blurry. First of all most of the pics were taken using my phone camera, and secondly... well, I am a fledgling baker after all.

* the chewy brownies that popped the cherry on my oven *


* chocolate cheese muffins *


* smarties & chocolate chip cookies *


* mini bread puddings (assisted by Eez) *

After scarfing down cookies over the weekend, I gained 400g (stats courtesy of my digital scale). Back to rabbit food and fat-free bleurghs tomorrow. Cheers!