Hey Mads! Do you remember the banana bread and sourdough episodes of quarantine 2020? While I never actually made those two items, this past semester baking became my favorite pastime whipping up various cookies, bars, breads, and cakes to share with friends.
There was a string of Mondays where I would spend the entire day revolved around baking bread. I would take my sweet time mixing, kneading, doing the dishes… and of course, eating bread. While the bread was proofing, I would simply read, clean, or do laundry. By having most of my classes online, this schedule worked pretty well and it was nice to take a weekday to go slowly and try new recipes or old favorites.
Sometimes baking would be an effort to use up an ingredient that was about to go bad like these cookies that were pretty much the tops of muffins. (Left photo below)
Other times, I would see something on Instagram and want to give it a shot, which was the case with the cardamom rolls. I had never tried cardamom but heard it was similar to cinnamon so I thought they’ve got to be good. This batch turned out quite photogenic and the flavor was so unexpected yet perfect for fall. (above on the right)
My go-to desserts were either lemon bars or Swedish almond cake, I made them so many times and somehow never took a single picture! These treats were so fun to keep in my backpack and share with friends while hammocking or at meetings!
Bread is hands down my favorite item to bake, there is something so comforting about the process. I really enjoy the time commitment it takes and the smell of fresh-baked bread is just the coziest thing in the world. This semester French bread was my favorite, in the picture is some bread I made for a friend’s birthday. Other fun breads I made were pumpkin bread and double chocolate zucchini bread.
These next two I’m going to share really make me laugh and I hope they bring you a laugh as well. When I told my sister my idea for this post she looked at me like, “Hope, are you sure??!” Mads, I think you will get a kick out of this, but let's just say cakes are not my forte.
This first one is a cinnamon bundt cake… well, it was supposed to be. I think that it looks really gross (oops) It stuck to the pan pretty bad and the topping was really messy- but it tasted great, I promise! I made this with two of my roommates and the best part was just hanging out with each other and going to the market to pick up some more sugar. -->
Below is my attempt at lemon curd cake with lemon cream cheese frosting… very rich, very messy, very big. Immediately I was like, “okay, this has to be shared ASAP because there is no way we are going to eat all of this.” After eating our slices we loaded up HALF of this cake and brought it over to some friends’ house. While not very cute, sharing the laughs of how ridiculous it looks made my Saturday night.
A big lesson the kitchen has taught me is that things don’t always turn out pretty or how we imagined (very true outside of the kitchen!) but I’m learning that it is the process that counts. The energy, time, and heart that is put into any sort of task, is not diminished simply because the aesthetic wasn’t on point or things didn’t go as planned. Honestly, there was far more for me to learn, to laugh about, and stories to tell of my baking fails than there was in the ones that went perfectly. Baking has also taught me to get comfortable with failure and the art of trying anyway, and how to manage being afraid of how things will go. Even if I don’t like the outcome, there is so much to love along the way.
Especially in these crazy days where I can’t hug all of my friends, being the “baked goods fairy” as one friend called me, this was a way for me to show love to my friends in a whole new way!
-hp
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