So much WIN!

Pardon me, but I really think I'm a genius for being able to successfully bake these macarons within my 2nd try! Haha!

But honestly, these are really not easy to bake. Just to bake 2 batches of these, I spent a total of 4 hours plus in the kitchen. My back and feet were breaking at the end of the baking session. However, the pain was worth it when I saw these beauty rising in the oven. 

Also thankfully, I chose the right recipe. Credits to Foodie Baker. Definitely my go-to blog when I need to find other recipes to bake or cook in the future!

I think there were 2 learning points from baking macarons this time and I think they are the main reasons why my macarons succeeded. 

1. Patience. Loads of it. I can't emphasize how important this is!

After piping, you will need to let the macarons rest, until the top of the shell is no longer shiny. It should be matte before you popped it in the oven. Another indicator that the shell is ready is to slightly touch the top of the shell and if the batter does not stick to your hand, then you're ready to bake it!

2. Temperature. I think you really need to trial and error and see what temperature is best to bake your macarons. I tried the first one at 180 deg but the shells cracked, though it had beautiful feet. For the second batch, I baked it at 150 deg and the results were perfect! But my oven's 150 deg may be different from yours and the author's of the recipe, so you really need to play with your own oven!

Okay, here's the print screen of the recipe from Foodie Baker! Sorry it's a little untidy. Otherwise you can google foodiebaker's recipe! 

Good luck and enjoy the 4 hours! :) 

Learning to bake #1

I've always enjoyed baking because I've a really sweet tooth! I love cakes, brownies, cupcakes, muffins....everything sweet! But I've never been a good baker, sometimes the bakes fail and turn out to be totally inedible, sometimes the bakes turn out to be really tasty! 

Some weeks ago, I chanced about a bakery website which also conducts baking lesson! And they were conducting classes for Earl Grey Lavender cake, and these 2 flavours are my favourites! So I decided to ask a good friend along to learn baking with me. The class that we joined cost $118, which was pretty expensive in my opinion, but we get to bring home our self-made 6" cake. 

Here we were, at Bakers' Brew Studio for our lesson and I immediately went to "chope" the pink kitchenaid! It has always been a dream to own a kitchenaid because it makes baking so much easier and that kitchenaid was in my favourite colour!

Us getting busy making the batter for our  sponge cake layers. 

Tadaaahhh, our 6 layers are done, and it smelt heavenly!

This was my final product.

I have never bake a cake on my own before, and I realised, it is not an easy job. Making the sponger layers were easy but it was the spreading of the frosting that was ccrazily difficult. It was so difficult to spread the frosting to ensure that all parts were covered up, no holes present and to smooth-en the frosting on the cake.

I gave up a few times doing it and requested help from the instructor. Heh heh, that's why my cake looks pretty decent. 

Now, I can't wait for my next class on 12/9 for Salted Caramel Chocolate cake! Yummy!