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Thursday 20 June 2019

Life has been like making a sourdough loaf

When you make a sourdough bread (disclaimer: amateur baker here has not actually made a sourdough in her life yet, I just watch a lot of recipe videos haha), you make a starter dough. This gets proved over time in approx 5-6 days? You keep feeding the dough and it keeps proving until you've got yourself a fully functional and very much alive starter.

Well, that's what life has been a bit like these years. A bit testing, and very much feeling like I needed to constantly prove my self worth. Life is a constant sourdough making process, and its a slow development but like sourdough, if you don't give yourself time you're never going to rise to your peak. Hopefully soon I will feel like a rustic sourdough loaf. 

One summer my sister and her boyfriend was visiting (they now reside in HK) so I decided to make them a choux cake. 


It came out OK, it was a little dry because there wasn't any kind of frosting on the outside (I was lazy with glazing it with sugar syrup). In hindsight I should have made a creme diplomat rather than just whipped cream in the middle and creme pat on the top. The filled choux buns made the cake top heavy of course. I needed much stronger forces to keep them in place instead of just creme pat. Mmm, maybe some creme de beurre? A french buttercream will adhere to the cake nicely and nestle up the choux buns rather cosily. 


Mental note to self: long bamboo sticks do not hold a cake in place for very long, no matter how light the sponge is...

Ending this with a delish toffee ice cream (WITH BITS) I made ages ago. So delish I took a spoonful (albeit a little spoon) before taking a photo to marvel at the swirls. 


Those little flecks of vanilla are so pretty, in this photo they look like stars amidst space, flowing through a yummy, swirly milky caramelly way.

I've found joy in baking again, which means I've probably found that part of peace that was missing again.