Gasp!

Has it really been more than a year since I last posted!? I am shocked.

Not that I don’t know that I haven’t baked anything blog-worthy in a while but …

There is only one possible explanation for this. I am getting old and boring and unimaginative in my baking.

Or I am lacking baking occasions. Second possible explanation.

Or life keeps getting in the way.

I should stop counting my possible explanations.

Anyway. If you’ve missed me: sorry! I am planning something for this weekend, so there may be a new post coming up.

Where’s the cake?

 

Short note

 

Just a short note, in case you were interested:

I’m starting to prepare for tomorrow’s baking. And I am loving it! :D

an announcement of sorts

It was my birthday yesterday, and I spent it the best way I could think of: baking. :D

It’s husband’s birthday today, and we’re having a party tonight. It has become a kind of tradition that for our birthdays, we’re forcing our respective circles of friends to sit together in one room. :D But we’re also providing large quantities of food and alcohol, so most of them cope with the situation quite well – and do come back the next year, so I’m assuming it’s not that bad for them. :)

And I must admit that this party is also one of, if not the baking highlight of the year for me. I have been planning the birthday cakes for MONTHS. Obsessed? Me? Nah. I’ve started work on my list of Christmas presents for this year. It’s all quite normal, I can assure you!

So I have baked grown-up, respectable cakes for my grown-up, respectable friends.

And I have baked … other cakes. For my other* friends. :D

I really hope the pictures turn out well; I can’t wait to show them to you! Wheeee!

* You know who you are! :-Þ

I can has cups!

My friend gave me such a sweet present today: my very own Cups Measuring Cup! :)

What a great idea. Presents for me are a great idea in general, but this one really stands out. No more cake disasters because I got the conversion wrong! More cake disasters because of other reasons! :D

Semi-hostile takeover! Gasp!

 

Today my kitchen is being invaded by evil creatures with y chromosomes. Hiss!

Nah, it’s not that awful. Actually, I think it’s rather nice: my husband and his workmate are baking two cakes for their friend’s birthday. And at least I got to help make the decision which cakes to bake. It won’t be too easy not to hover in the background giving them useful tips and advice (and stepping in when they are too close to screwing up…). Can you tell I trust them completely? :)

So, anyway, no Sunday baking stories from me this time.

 

 

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I will have to bake a cake tomorrow!

 

Monster courgette

PREPARE TO DIE! ... and be reborn in a most delicious way! :D

My friend has given me monster courgettes because I looooove them. I love courgette soup, courgette bakes, fried courgettes, courgette curries, … But right now I am thinking … Lemon & courgette tray bake. Chocolate & courgette cake. And I am rather tempted to see whether I can bake a pie on the basis of my pumpkin pie recipe with a few alterations so that the filling will be courgetty-green. Or yellow and green! Hmmm….

 

Pumpkin Pie Preparation

I have just prepared the dough for my first ever pumpkin pie, which I am going to make tomorrow morning. I am really looking forward to it, even though of course I have to change the recipe a bit as I never manage to buy all the ingredients. And I do make shopping lists! Strange.

I don’t have enough eggs for the filling, but the ones I have will just have to do. And I don’t have any maple syrup – I’m guessing honey should be a good enough substitute?

Basically, I treat any recipe like I treat speed limits … They are one suggested way of going about it … don’t have to apply to me though! :)

My first blogging crisis: day one, hour two or so of blogging

I’ve just realised that I failed to take pictures of a number of cakes and things I baked in the past. Not a loss we all can’t cope with (mostly because it means I will have to bake even more cakes in the future! Win!) but it means there will be much fewer pictures of old cakes than I’d anticipated. Tough luck.

This is monsterbake headquarters speaking

Welcome, outside world. This is monsterbake headquarters speaking. I would like to use this blog to keep track of my kitchen experiments. I love baking; it’s become so bad my husband actually complains that there’s always too much cake for him to eat. Yes, that’s how bad things are in our marriage. I would be worried if I had the time, but I’m too busy baking!

The first thing I am going to do, over the course of the next few days, is upload pictures of previous cakes. And then there should be new pictures soon. I have got two projects for the next two days: tomorrow, I shall turn the blueberry and poppyseed cupcakes I’ve baked today into cookie monster cupcakes with the help of lots of blue food colouring, desiccated coconut, etc. It’s an idea I’ve stolen from the Elders of the Internet.

Project # 2 is my first ever pumpkin pie. This will sound ridiculous to any American but it’s something that isn’t usually made around here.* However, I love pumpkins and I have a friend who says she only likes pumpkins in soups, so I feel I have to help her discover her love for other pumpkin dishes.

* I’m sat in a basement somewhere near you. Probably closer than you think. Yes, you should be scared.