Baking

Do you like baking^★? I like baking because I don’t need to think about anything while I am baking. Also the results are usually yummy. Although I’m not always successful, I still feel good when I see good-looking muffins come out of the oven! Today, I will share one of my baking experiences.

I became interested in baking when I started to live on my own. I shared a house with a landlady named Denise and 2 international girls. Everyone was pretty good at cooking, but Denise was particularly good. My favourite moment was watching Denise baking chocolate chip cookies from the Hershey’s chocolate recipe book. I liked how she delicately folded^★ the cookie dough with her wooden spatula and made perfectly round shapes with the dough. Needless to say, she inspired me to bake and, since then, I have started to bake a few things and also started to collect good recipes in English so that it helps me learn the language as well.

Of course I’m not successful all the time. One time, my friend made me some pancakes from scratch^★ for breakfast. I loved them so much that I tried to make the same thing again at home. However when I tried all I got from the flying pan was a piece of super hard rubber! That was a very funny moment, but I still remember what Denise told me while looking at the rubber pancakes – you need a bit of adventure and invention to be a good baker.

I still fail quite bit but I don’t care so much as I believe that failure leads to success in the end!?

Here’s one of my favourite recipes that I’ve baked for my friend’s birthday. Abby baked us some carrot cakes the other day and it reminded me of this recipe. (And of course her cake was amazing as it always is!) So I baked it again a couple of months ago and it turned out pretty well. Anyway, here’s the recipe.

Hope you enjoy baking!

[Carrot Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting]
*Makes 10 cup cakes (I recommend size L paper cups from Daiso!)

-INGREDIENTS- -FROSTING-
2 eggs 1/4 cup Butter, softened
1/2+1/8 cups Vegetable oil 4 ounces Cream cheese, softened
1 cup White sugar 1~2 cups White sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla (Change the amount as you like)
1 cup All-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 teaspoon Baking soda 1/2 cup Dried cranberries (alternative)
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 1/2 cups Grated carrots
1/2 cup Chopped pecans (alternative)

*The recipe measured with an American measuring cup.

-INSTRUCTIONS-
Pre-heat oven at 180℃ (350 Fahrenheit ).
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into paper cups. Bake about 35~40 minutes.

For frosting, mix all the ingredients except cranberries. Stir in the berries last. Cool the cake completely and then frost.

～～～これ知ってた？～～～
★Baking
「Bake」は焼くということですが、ここではお菓子作りの意味です。ここで紹介しているレシピは、アメリカの計量カップを使用しています。日本とアメリカ、イギリスにオーストラリア。どの国も若干計量カップの大きさが国々で違います！また、オーブンの温度の表現にも摂氏と華氏で違いありますね。外国のレシピを使う時はぜひ注意してみてください！

★Fold
「折る」という意味ですが、お料理のときにも使える単語です。「（へら等で）混ぜ合わせる」という意味があります。ぐるぐるかき混ぜるというよりは、包み込むように混ぜるといったニュアンスです。

★From Scratch

「最初から、はじめから」という意味。例えば、ホットケーキを焼く時、ホットケーキミックスを使わずに作った場合、”I made some pancakes from scratch!”と言えます＼(^o^)／