I have gotten back into my Martha Stewart mode (Antoinette says I should be described as Aunt Jemima instead. lol). I've been baking non-stop. My adventures started off with strawberry shortcake and it was SO amazing!!! Emboldened with my success, I tried to make apple tart and that was also very good (while it was hot, and then it got really hard, but it still tasted very good). After that, I tried to make scones. I had a real adventure making these because I totally went off recipe. I decided that by then I had enough experience that I could try to figure out what needed to be added and how much. So... with my new found confidence in baking, I found myself making rosemary/orange flavored scones. They were actually really good and because they were good, I decided that I needed to experiment with even more flavors. A couple of days later, I made cranberry flavored scones. I wanted to experiment further and added strawberry jam on a couple of the scones before cooking them, and they were even better than the plan cranberry scones! And then the good adventures ended....
So, you know how I said that I've been so confident of my baking skills because I have been basically altering all the recipes I make and they all turn out good? Well, that ended today. I was SO excited to make coconut cake today that I didn't even mind that it would take me forever to make. I started off by trying to find some shredded coconut at my house. I finally found some, but I realized that the recipe called for sweetened coconut, so I decided to be a pioneer with baking and try to make my own sweetened coconut bits. I added some sugar to a bowl of water and threw in the dried coconut. I mean, really, after all that osmosis stuff we had to learn in biology, I figured this would work to make the coconut sweet. (I like the fact that I was using science for real life today. lol). This worked fine, but I think I got a little to excited by my discovery and added too much of it into the mix. And then I got too carried away with the coconut milk (I really wanted it to taste like coconut), and the mixture got SOOO runny. I still tried to cook it, but feels too moist and sticky still. And, I cooked it for like 20 minutes more than the recipe called for. And, to top it off, it doesn't even taste like coconut still! Sigh. I guess I was in for a disaster sooner or later...
But not to worry. I have also recently had success making savory food. Namely, I made enchiladas and lasagna. So, tomorrow, I'm going to make gnocchi!! YAY! And, I really do mean that the gnocchi will be freshly made with fresh sauce! I can't wait to try it tomorrow!
