Missing life Part 1 : Baking

The recent cooking recipe post by Vincent make me realized one of many things why I miss life in Melbourne. It may seem so trivial and childish to some.

That is every single house in Melbourne has built-in oven. ^^

I know some of u guys might be laughing right now but it is something important to me =P

I never have the urge to learn baking in Malaysia since it's relatively easier to go and buy cake at the bakery or pastry shop rather than make one myself and it is quite cheap too. It's a different story when I went to Melbourne.

It is still easy to buy cake in Melbourne, no doubt about that, but you only have two choices. Either you buy the cheap but just so-so cake at the supermarket such as Coles or Woolies or you buy super tasty but damn expensive cake from the bakery shop like Brunetti's. And money is one thing that I need to control while in Melbourne >_<

So, in the end, I end up learnt how to bake by myself. It's hilarious when I think about my first time baking. I didn't know any of the Do's and Don'ts of baking art. I had zero knowledge in pastry or culinary thingy. I didn't even know that we need to pre-heat the oven before we start to bake. Yeah, I was that bad at that time =P

Me, been too bold for my first trial, decide to bake a cheesecake. It was like the last choice for any first-timer and indeed, it went terribly wrong. I messed it up so badly that the cake came out uncooked even after more than an hour in the oven. When I cut it open, the center still all goo-ey and jelly like but the taste ain't that bad. The second trial, it cracked really bad that I didn't even have to cut it open. Took me 5 batches and another month before it came out perfectly nice. No crack, the top not burnt like 3rd trial, all part cooked and it tasted heavenly. That was what my housemate aka food-tester said xD

Ever since then, I tried a lot of different recipes; strawberry cheesecake, chocolate cake, brownies, apricot slice, almond cake, kek batik, butter cake, cookies. I even dare ventured into making kuih raya during my housewarming. Even though the kitchen will be messy every time I bake, my housemate can't complaint much since they got to eat free cake =D lollllxxxx

Two occasions that made me never regret learning how to bake : when I bake for my friend's birthday and when I bring some to my final performance of gamelan course. I think that was the pinnacle of my baking period ^_^

Now, I haven't bake for months ever since I return to this land. Apart from not having an oven, it was so hard to get the baking ingredients in my hometown and the price can kill me instantly. I feel like my skill is deteriorating slowly if I don't practice it again soon >_<

It is trivial thing like this that make me miss life in Melbourne

I LOVE BAKING VERY MUCH!!!!!

Love,
me