Busy Baking

Baking is such a joy!

I have always enjoyed baking but it's always very time-consuming and there was alway something else better to do. But well, it turned out to be highly de-stressing and wonderful time to hone my skills in baking.

I started baking my first Brownies.

It turned out to be awesome. I am giving credit to Vanhouten's chocolate definitely. 

The brownies had this really rich chocolate taste that made it quite addictive. So quality ingredients is a must. Lesson learnt. The only downfall was that the base of the brownies were burnt because I placed the baking rack too low to the heating element. That made cleaning up a highly-challenging job but thanks to N, the baking tin was washed and scrubbed to the nines.

Next, I made Pancakes with Strawberry sauce with Ham, Baked Beans and Scrambled Eggs on the side.

This was BRUNCH fit for the King(& Queen). 

Pancakes was a fool-proof plan but I overestimated how much one serving is and prepared too much pancakes. I guess that happens when you are cooking on an empty stomach. Everything just seem ain't enough to fill up your hunger. The delicious sauce was made with love by N. He's such a good cook, better than I am. One day, we will be on par. So yup, if I ever need to prepare food in Europe. At least, I know how to make pancakes within 15 mins. :D

A few days later, I had some craving for banana and so I decided to bake Banana and Walnut Cake.

It was delicious because I added 2 bananas instead of 1. I love bananas! Bananas are rich in potassium and calcium. The sweetness of banana makes the two of us keep going for a second serving. The only bad thing was it didn't rise like a cake should do because I didn't add baking soda. I have no clue about food chemistry anyway but at least the cake was cooked and it tasted awesome. That's all it matters, the rest are just learning experience accumulated to improve the next baking.

Finally, N and I made fruit tarts together because it's a slightly more complicated and more steps in the recipe. It turned out great and wasn't a disappointment at all despite the long wait for the resting stage and the baking in batches stage. Awesome fresh fruits kept the tarts tasty and the tart pastry was crunchy. Not to mention, the made-from-scratch custard was delicious too! But it was slightly watery. Creamier custard would be much better. Decorating the tarts was such a headache for me. I think i have zero creativity. So N did most of the decorating while I cut up the fruits. All in all, it was a pleasure to make these fruit tarts. & we both agreed that we will make more of it in the future with improvements to our baking method. YAY!!! I really love the tarts but they are so gonna be expanding my waist-line at an exponential rate. BOOO!!

N & I with the tarts! :D

Our tasty tarts hot from the oven!

Our 1st tart for tasting

Ok, Blogging about food at night is really torturous to my stomach. That's it for now!