• Baking Recipes,  Christmas & holidays,  From the books,  My favourite things,  Simple cakes,  Timeless Treats

    A Bûche de Noël to wish you a very merry Christmas

    25 December, 2013

    There are several things I love about Christmas, and no they do not involve material presents. There’s the food, which is always a tad more abundant around this time of the year. I also love getting reunion invitations from friends I haven’t seen in years! But what I really honestly look forward to about Christmas is that especially magnified sense of contentment I always get. I’ve always felt like my year culminates during the Christmas holidays instead of the new year. I guess with all the excitement on New Year’s Eve I have difficulty finding that moment of solitude to really take in everything that I have around me, or…

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  • Baking Recipes,  From the books,  Lemon Obsession,  Simple cakes

    The angels sing about lime and pistachio

    9 July, 2013

    In truth, the macaron was not the first “daunting” egg white recipe I made. It was actually this angel food cake that was so instrumental in boosting my confidence for making egg-white desserts. I made this about a week before my first macaron attempt, but I am only writing about it now because the excitement over my macaron success crashed into and basically obliterated everything else at the time. It didn’t seem fair to write about this in passing while riding the tide of excitement over the macarons. This particular angel food cake deserves more attention than that.

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  • Baking Recipes,  Cookies,  Reinventions of classics

    A moment for Boston, and the world while we’re at it

    17 April, 2013

    There was a time when I aspired to run a marathon in Boston. It was around the time I had just begun to gain confidence in my ability to go the distance in my running. Despite all the splinters and the post-run sores, running gave me such a wonderful release. I would be on an adrenaline high hours after the run. The feeling of running down an open road is unparalleled: the sky above you, a seemingly endless expanse of land before you, the wind on your face… It’s a little piece of freedom we very rarely get to enjoy leading such busy lives. And then there’s crossing the finish-line,…

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  • Baking Recipes,  From the books,  Layer cakes,  Lemon Obsession

    Lemon cakes and well wishes

    13 April, 2013

    It was an incredibly dreary day when I made this, and yet I could not allow it to permeate the purpose of this cake. The summer weather has been odd, abruptly throwing rain in the middle of heat waves whenever it felt like it, like a child throwing a tantrum, or maybe a person splashing water into the face of another in the heat of an argument. Either way, the clouds had caused the sun to cast a dark gray sheen over everything, but thankfully not on our moods. Jason was holding my camera as I messily assembled his birthday cake. ‘Hurry up, will you!’ He told me as he…

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  • Baking Recipes,  Colours of the rainbow,  Cookies

    Red Velvet Valentine Crinkles + Happy Hearts Day to all!

    13 February, 2013

    Probably the only thing I really think about when someone says the word Valentine’s is that it’s an amazing opportunity to get creative with the things that come out of your oven. And it’s not because I’m some bitter heartbroken man-hating spinster or anything, it’s just that I think it’s not a particularly special event. It might be a cliché to say that we should make it a point to express how much we love our boyfriends/girlfriends, husbands/wives on a daily basis even in the smallest ways; but to me, it’s an even bigger cliché to pick a particular day to give extra special attention to your partner. Tell your…

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