This baking story begins like many others: as a kid, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother who had a sweet tooth. We had the same love for food and line dancing (still do). She taught me how to make chocolate sauce for sundae, French toast, and homemade icing for my Easy Bake Oven cakes.
I spent the last 20 years baking my way through life, using it as a calming tool as much as a way of showing my appreciation for somebody. In the last few years, as I was trying to escape my miserable life as a freelancer, baking became a serious passion in my life.
Earl Grey Honey Fig Cake that I made in 2017
And it wasn’t random. I always loved hard work. I always loved investing everything I had to succeed in something. I never lacked motivation. But after a couple of years insane work hours, I found that I had no desire of working hard ever again in my life. I wanted to find an easy job, to have an easy life, and never be exhausted again.
But this is not life, right? What is living if you only take the easy road? What would my life look like in 10 years if I said no to every challenge, every scary project, every tough decision? Things that matter in life are hard to get. This is just a fact.
Cornflakes, marshmallow and chocolate chip cookies that almost burned down my appartment.
Baking made a reentry in my life at that point to reteach me the value of hard work. If you like box cake, good for you (really!), but there is nothing like cake that took a whole day to bake. In baking, you want flavours, textures, depths, fun, and a great presentation. All these components don’t come easy to you.
You have to make a soak, an airy-bouncy batter, a whipped glossy icing, you have to assemble with homemade crumbs, jams, decoration pieces. You have to buy the best ingredients, weigh them, sift, whip, fold, pipe, bake, measure. And clean, so much cleaning. But after all that, you get to share with the people you love and it is the best feeling ever. Baking is hard work, and if you invest the time and care, the results are simply incredible.
I made my own birthday cake this year and it was worth every hour of hardwork. Here is the recipe!
So I want to get better at it. I want to be able to one day compete in The Great Canadian Baking Show. I have targeted some classic pastry recipes and baking techniques that will (hopefully) get me closer to the ultimate goal. The best in this? I promised myself to bring you something at the end of the semester.* *I could have promised to bring something every Friday but it doesn’t work in my schedule very well and I would hate to put that kind of pressure on myself during this very demanding semester. I have no intention of ruining baking for myself. It is an enjoyable thing right now and it HAS to stay like this. Even if that means that you will all like Kristof better!
