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. 

Baked doughnuts

Mmmm. It almost seems like the only time I ever post anything on here its during summer. ha. University has been great this year, I thoroughly enjoyed most of my time of 2nd year. With one one module being my favourite, cell communication. This upcoming academic year there will more nutrition centered modules, looking forward to it a lot but will miss the more science based subjects greatly, even though they gave me a lot of stress it was so much fun learning about the subjects, ahh. Farewell, farewell. 

Matcha baked doughnuts and strawberry cupcakes

I love working with matcha, the vibrant green it gives my bakes are so lovely. My brother's fiance and her family absolutely adores matcha, anything matcha related in London she has probably already tried. Her love for matcha is equivalent to my love for chocolate.

Strawberry cupcakes! Strawberry is another favourite flavour of mine, as I have probably mentioned before. It sort of started off with the mini milk lollies that my mum use to buy for us, they came in three flavours, milk, chocolate and strawberry (ahh could do with one right now). I loved those milk lollies even to this day. The obsession with strawberry flavoured things grew when I tried haagen dazs' strawberry ice cream. I enjoyed the mini nuggets of strawberry the most in the ice cream and would often dig at them as if I found gold digging in the ground. 

The buttercream was a little disappointing, I recall it was a french buttercream that I made and I had used freeze dried strawberry powder to avoid the buttercream from splitting, plus freeze dried strawberry powder is so delish. I remember the buttercream tasting too rich and not light enough but I often found that way with french buttercreams, hmm. Possibly try another buttercream next time. 

Strawberry baked doughnuts

The freshly baked doughnuts just looks so mesmerizing with their browned surface. ^^

This time I made strawberry baked doughnuts (yes there was at least a few months time difference between when I made matcha doughnuts and strawberry doughnuts xD). I added way too much freeze dried strawberry powder which immediately turned the icing into a deep red rather than a blushed pink which was what I had hope for. I experimented with different decorations this time as I had some mini sugar flowers left over and I had always wanted to try made those cute doughnut characters. 

Next time I will be brave and try the traditional fried doughnuts. Hoping to make either creme brulee doughnuts or nutella. Mmm. 

-Listening to BTS' cover of Shinwa's perfect man (and dancing shamelessly) live whilst sipping cold brewed green tea. On a sunny Saturday in my living room.