The best and worst bakes of 2012

Above: Brownies, one of the last treats made in 2012!

I've never baked so much in my life before. The six months past saw me baking, baking, and baking... I never really set out to bake so much either, just that it got pretty addictive once I got started again - after having a kitchen of my own :)

And since this is the last day of 2012, I thought it would be timely to do a brief recap of some baking highlights of my little baking journey. So I present to you in this blog post - the best and worst bakes of 2012.

I first started baking during my college years - and egg tarts were one of the first things I made with my then baking buddy. These are very simple to bake - and produce consistently good results every time; and the only chinese-style desserts I know how to make!

Somehow I'm not really drawn to baking breads - and these cinnamon rolls are about the only bread I've attempted - at a baking class I took in August. They tasted really good - and reminded me of my secondary school days, when I frequently walked past a cinnamon roll shop at Wisma Atria after school (when entering from the basement via the entrance just outside Orchard MRT station).

These lovely pear frangipane tarts were like a one-hit wonder. They really tasted as good as they look, and they are certainly one of better treats I've made all year. Because I am not confident with making pie crusts, I've not had the courage to make them again since then. But I would love to make them (successfully) again soon!

OK I sneaked this shot into the post though these fresh apricots certainly do not count as 'baked goods'. They are particularly memorable though as it was one of my earliest attempts to style my food, and turned out quite well. I was lucky that day too, as I've not seen such fresh apricots in my neighbourhood NTUC since!

I seldom make savoury treats - but this was one of the few nice breakfast things I made since taking on the new role as a wife and temporary home-maker :)

I think the Japanese make the prettiest cakes in the world; and I love recipes with green tea in them. This green tea souffle swiss roll probably counts as the best Japanese cum green tea baked treat I've made so far - the cottony soft texture of this souffle swiss roll brings back fond memories of simple, no-frills cakes I used to enjoy when I was a child. 

My lousy DIY cake-creaming skills also prompted me to take up a basic cake decoration course - and with the encouragement of a very patient instructor, I managed to create a prettily decorated rosette cake! This has to be the prettiest decorated cake I've created so far. Hopefully there will be more to come :)

And I baked and 'sold' a 28-cm naturally-dyed red velvet cake for the first time. Being a novice baker, it was quite a challenge to bake and decorate such a large cake; and that it was a 1-yr old's birthday cake made it all the more stressful. In the end, this didn't turn out that successful (in terms of taste and cake-creaming technique), but thankfully the somewhat whimsical design was well-received.  

And for Christmas, someone asked me if I bake (and sell) cookies? Actually I hadn't a clue, but I decided to try it out anyways. After experimenting with a few recipes, I finally found the winning formula, and ended up making some 120+ cookies for Christmas. 

Of course, life is never a bed of roses. You win some, and lose some. When you lose, you just have to grit your teeth and try again - and learn from your mistakes! One of most disgusting things I've made was this Basil ice-cream, which failed miserably - in terms of texture (it was icy and rock hard) as well as taste (the recipe had raw egg yolks in it and the ice-cream smelt of raw egg yolks). I've not had that much luck with making ice-cream, but I guess that also explains why I don't run an ice-cream shop, unlike my cousin!

I was also overly adventurous for my Christmas parties, and attempted a few new recipes. And so you can imagine how horrified I was when my pumpkin spice cake turned out looking like this - sunk in and shrivelled. All the pound cakes I made before this looked sufficiently presentable, but this!! Thankfully the taste was still quite decent, and I did a major surgery to mask its ugliness (see photo below). And so in the end they were still enjoyed and heartily eaten by my innocent guests :P

And so that is all for now! I will continue to refine my amateur baking skills in the coming year, and hopefully these efforts grow into something even more exciting in the coming year... 

Happy New Year and have a blessed 2013 ahead!