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| The Christmas tree at Harshita's place that I helped decorate |
So, it’s Christmas and a non-white one at that. I will have to grudgingly agree that a white-Christmas
would have been a welcome change from the cold-lazy-days that I have become
accustomed to off late making me fall in love …with my bed.
Most of my peeps are out
of town on vacation. While most of them are in some aunt or uncle’s place in
NewYork, Philadelphia , others have gone back to India for the
winters. Those lucky buggers! So that leaves me alone in this town with hardly
a soul to talk to. I won’t lie, It can get really lonely out here sometimes. So
I have been trying to chalk up plans for Christmas day and trying to find
something to do that really makes me feel …well..’Christmasy’. After a lot of
pondering , and struggling with my head to keep myself away from facebook.com
(for the half an hour that it took me to home-in on what to do on Christmas), I
finally decided that I’d bake.
Oh yeah, you heard
me..bake! I started baking last week and had already dished out some pies,
oatmeal cookies (by Ritesh, my roommate) and the highlight of my baking-spree,
the Banana-almond cupcakes and the banana-almond bread (my sister’s recipe). So
this time, I decided that I’d bake simple white cup-cakes (you know,
the ones available in every bakery in India, those light brown ones).
So I got up today
morning, fresh after a long nine hour sleep (winters can do that to you allright!!), had some cereal for breakfast and set about arranging my
ingredients in an orderly manner. I happen to be one of those people who like
having their ingredients ready and in separate bowls (like them cookery-shows).
I started around 1pm and after a few hits and misses, I was finally done with
three batches of white-cup-cakes by 4pm. The first batch turned out
impressively well but the latter batches were stubborn and did not follow on
the same lines, unfortunately. (Bake tip: when using Baking ‘soda’ in your
recipe, bake the ingredients immediately. Leaving the batter after mixing
allows the acid to start fermenting or something and the cake can go the ‘what-the-hell-happened-there’ly
way).
My main intention around
baking three batches of cup-cakes was to give the cup-cakes to my good friends
who are still here in town. I did just that and dutifully wished each one of
them ‘Merry Christmas’ when handing the cup-cakes. They were really
thankful and that alone made my day and the 4 hours I spent in the kitchen, all
worth the effort.
While making the
awesomely-awesome cup-cakes (what?! I love boasting about those cup-cakes ok?),
I realized that I really enjoyed cooking / baking so much. Yes,
cooking needs effort and time, and in most of the tasty-dishes, some
painstaking preparation time too. But it’s one of those few things where
hard-work can really visibly pay off and you can have a good time at the end of
it, digging into that tasty dish you just whipped up.
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| lookin good fellas.. :) |
Baking, now sits near
the top of ‘my favorite things to do’, right up there with reading a good book,
having an intense and thought provoking conversation with a good friend, and of
course- sleeping. I don’t claim to be the best baker in town, or
even the best in my friends-circle, but I sure can dish up a decent cup-cake. Here, check out the
photos of the cup-cakes that I made today..
Merry Christmas
everyone! J
