My baking sucks

I'm starting to think that my baking sucks. I mean i've tried out some recipes and they tasted pretty good, like the chocolate chip cookies and apple crumble. But honestly, other than those two, the things that i've baked on my own really didn't turn out all that great. I like baking, it's kind of a passion/hobby of mine, but something always goes wrong.

So tonight I decided to bake brownies for my friends for Christmas. I literally went out just to buy baking powder because I mistakenly thought that I had baking powder at home when it was actually baking soda. They are two different things so I was like "nah, i'm not gonna screw up the recipe this time round". See my dedication here?

Anyway I think I overestimated myself and made 2 portions, because like I mentioned earlier I was planning to give them to my friends around 5-7 of them. But the end product turned out too crumbly and dry, and it wasn't sweet enough. This is probably because I didn't follow the recipe accordingly. I used a much lesser amount of chocolate, and the chocolate was unsweetened when the recipe's one was semi-sweetened. My mum said it's okay so I thought it would turn out fine. I added >50g of sugar to compensate for the chocolate, but it didn't help much. Sigh, then my mum kept reassuring me by saying, "it's not that bad, it's nice. I'll eat it for breakfast tomorrow." The more she said it, the more I thought she was trying to make me feel better. I mean my brownies weren't that much of a failure, it's just a moderate pass, but much improvement could be made.

Let me share with you my other baking failures haha. So one time I saw Byron's instructional video of the cookie cup and it looked super cute and appealing so I decided to be ambitious and tried his recipe out. Turns out somehow, I couldn't even get the cookies out of the cup. It failed so miserably and I left the two cups in the fridge because I didn't know what to do with it. Next day, my dad threw them away without even asking. He threw the cups away! Thank God they were free cups.

Another time, (which was quite recent, it was during my previous holidays), I wanted to bake these mother-in-law tongues which I found from my dad's recipe book. It's a cookie shaped like a pringle. And I thought, hey if this turns out successful I can post it on instagram. Turned out to be a total disaster. It tasted like cake instead and I'm not even joking. The batter was stuck to my parchment paper and I couldn't get it out! Unfortunately I wasted my parents' money on the ingredients and my time put into baking and washing up. The recipe was way too vague and adding my limited baking skills and knowledge = *_*

The more I write this post, the more depressed I get. But yes, I read that baking is like a science or an art, and it's kind of like trial and error. My dad says sometimes you can't get it right on the first try. I'm not gonna give up on baking I can assure you! I'll fill this blog of hopefully successful bakes! x

Holidays make me happy

Holidays equals to doing things that you like, things that make you happy. As for me, it equates to baking, binge watching Korean dramas (that is if I discover interesting ones), reading books, visiting cafes, exploring new places in Singapore and i'm definitely planning to visit the National Gallery which looks absolutely beautiful. I love any building that resembles those European architecture that looks ancient yet visually appealing. I think my (future) camera would be in love!!! Currently saving up for the Canon 100D but my progress is kinda going nowhere at the moment, clearly can't wait to use it when I travel overseas next year!

Today, I went to Awfully Chocolate with Chao Lei this afternoon to satisfy my iced mocha craving, which I tried the previous time I went with Wei Ling and it tasted heavenly, even better than Starbucks/any other mocha i've drunk before! Not lying, I promise. We started on our SIP reflection journals and we kept getting distracted and chatted non-stop. So much for getting things done but like they say, the first step to overcome procrastination is to start easy (or just start somewhere). #sourceunknown #probablyfromme

Spent the evening with Wei Ling, Si Rui, Lin Ying and Vivien at Jcube and had my sesame udon noodles at Itacho Sushi which wasn't even filling. Need to stop spending on food, someone remind me please. It wasn't really a bible study session, more of a shopping session for Wei Ling haha!

Still can't believe that 2015 is ending so soon. Reminds me of the faith goals and regular new year goals i've set to achieve for the year but some failed miserably... I'm also planning to restart on my #100daysofproductivity challenge, which originated from Tumblr. The general idea is to make sure that everyday you do something — anything productive. It embraces the concept that by chipping away at least a little bit of that big pile of work we all have everyday, we can make huge changes for the future. 

Felt motivated and inspired after scrolling past some posts of it and thus, i've created a blog specially meant for that. (Link here) Hopefully, the challenge is a way to develop my self-discipline to literally do anything like go for a jog, cook something healthy, read newspapers, bring my dog out, make some study notes, do household chores, study a chapter or two for my exams, instead of stagnating at home watching Youtube videos incessantly. I believe that it's a choice (or even a struggle) everyday to choose between being productive or wasting the day off. And this challenge will get me started and avoid procrastination. 

I'll update you on the progress! xxx