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| My most-requested cookies: white chip chocolate |
It's already January 7 in my neck of the woods, which means that Christmas is officially over with the Feast of the Three Kings having come and gone. How are y'all coming along with your New Year's resolutions one week into 2013?
I know I'll be overwhelmed once the baby comes that I didn't even bother to make any major general resolutions this year. I'll be too caught up with the little girl that I don't think I'll have the time to read x many books or lose x pounds or save x pesos, and I probably won't have a lot of money to buy this and travel to there and enroll in this. I'll do my New Year's resolutions (which I'll break before January ends, anyway) again next year.
One thing I do resolve to keep doing and keep improving on even when the wee one is already here is my baking. It keeps me happy; it's my stress-reliever. And I do have some resolutions this year when it comes to this little hobby of mine:
- Make French macarons - I've been in love with macarons since I was in college, waaaay before the current macaron craze, back when I could get them only at Bizu. They cost around P30 apiece then, and since I was just a poor student, I could only afford to get one or two at a time. The heyday of macarons may be over soon (or not), but my love for them is here to stay.
- Recreate my favorite pastries and baked goods - Becky's Kitchen's brownies and lemon squares, Chocolat's Death by Tablea, Chocolate Kiss's Devil's Food Cake, Estrel's/Costa Brava's caramel cake, Polly's chocolate cake, Cinnabon's cinnamon roll and PecanBon, Starbucks' Oreo Cheesecake... I'll attempt to food-hack them all.
- Learn how to decorate cakes and cupcakes - I can't decorate my baked goods. How sad is that? My frosted cupcakes look terrible, which is such a shame because they are really yummy, if I may say so myself. I'll work on my decorating skills this year.
- Try as many new recipes as possible - My baking repertoire is still very limited. I should add more. One cupcake/cookie/cake recipe at least monthly sounds realistic enough, and I can do this in line with #2.
- Bake a cake every month on my baby's 'month birthday' - I used to find this silly, celebrating a kid's birthday every month until he or she turns one. Our parents didn't do this when we were kids. But now that I'm pregnant, I know I am so doing that! It would be more special (and cheaper) to have a homemade cake instead of a store-bought one every month.
- Make my own lactation goodies once I give birth - There are baked goods made with galactagogues such as fenugreek and brewer's yeast available, but these are quite expensive to order on a regular basis. I can save a lot of money by making them myself. (I could probably just shove 'em galactagogues straight into my maw to save time and money, but where's the fun in that?)
- Follow more baking blogs on my blog reader - Baking blogs are awesome resources.
So, there you go. My baking resolutions for this year. Maybe I'll get to do them, maybe I won't. Who sticks to resolutions anyway?
I hope you're still going strong with yours!
