Whenever I'm stressed, down, or just feeling out of it, I always turn to my kitchen for solace. Now I'm not talking about foraging in the fridge for leftover Chinese, or trying to Iron-Chef a meal together where the secret ingredient is ice cream. I find therapy in baking, creating, and, of course, feeding other people. By the frequency and nature of my blog posts, you would assume that by now I'd be ready to be committed to the loony bin. Perhaps so, but I also bake on my good days, which pretty much means I'm baking all the time. Right. However, I think it's the accuracy and skill required that distracts me and pulls me out of my reverie of doom, stress, or whatever I might need therapy from. Plus the smiles on the happy faces of the recipients of my treats is sure to brighten anyone's day.
Though I've been baking run-of-the-mill treats for work, occasionally I'll have an event to bake for, which is definitely a pick-me-up. For a little girl's 5th birthday, I decided to do strawberry filled cupcakes with Italian meringue frosting.
However, I ended up with extra strawberries, genoise, and italian meringue and decided to make some other treats.
I quickly whipped together some pastry cream and made a couple smaller cakes and a parfait. Now I was suck with leftover pastry cream. What to do? Make choux pastry of course. I mixed up some pate-a-choux dough and baked off some cream puff swans in the oven. Not too shabby for an afternoon of baking.
On another note, I'm definitely participating in this year's
SF Food Blogger Bake Sale! For all of those who
stalk follow me via my blog, now you can stop by on Saturday May 14th and try some of the tasty treats! The proceeds benefit a great cause as well. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm going to bake, but keep posted for a list. My goods will be at 18 Reasons located at 593 Guerrero at 18th Street in San Francisco. I'll be manning the booth from noon until 1PM. If I'm not there, I'll likely be passed out at nearby Dolores Park with some Bi-Rite ice cream in hand!
1 comment:
i agree baking is good therapy! (even though i'm not that great at it). all your desserts look amazing, especially those swan cream puffs! :)
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