Sunday, July 27, 2008

Paying Off My Nigela Lawson




I have a resolution. In order to pay off my investment in those cookbooks that I've collected over the years, I am going to attempt to do at least one recipe from each cookbook. The reality is not that simple. I've got few obstacles that I still can not overcome till now.
I enjoy reading the recipes and the books. I have a long list of things to bake from each cookbook. But to find willing guinea pigs to devour the stuff that I bake is another thing.
Those who know me should know that I only eat things that are fruity. And Y and Big N only eat chocolate and its derivatives. Little N watches out her diet carefully, she does not take any cakes as it may ruin her slender figure. Of course my maid is my next target, but she too has had enough of my weekly baking. I think I enjoy baking more than I enjoy eating the final product.
So, coming out with the rendition of the baking stuff is the easy part. But finding the market for my stuff, that remains the challenge. And have I mentioned the low success rate that entails each experiment?

Ever since my successful yogurt experiment last month, I've been making yogurt almost once a week. Sadly, I am the only one eating the yogurt that I make. Sometimes, little N will help, but, most of the time, I am the one finishing the whole tub.
Until one day, the tragedy struck. I got food poisoning. Not because of the yogurt, because on that fateful day, little N also took the yogurt and she was okay. But the doctor asked me to stay clear out of the dairy products for a few days. Meanwhile, I've got more than half a liter of yogurt in my fridge. And I've turned into Cleopatra, applying my all-the-goodness-in-the-nature yogurt as face mask. But I figured I could make something better with my yogurt stock, than just turning them into face mask.

So, I turned into my recipe book. And Nigella Lawson and her blitz everything for a few minutes captured my attention. After all, she's the domestic goddess. And the best part is, I've never done ANY of her recipes.
So I whipped up "Baby Bundt" from Nigella's How To Be a Domestic Goddess. But, since I don't have a bundt pan, I used my muffin pan, and turned them into cupcakes.

And the review from my food critics cum husband went something like this, "hmmm...it's not too bad!"
'Not too bad' is a safe comment. It's something that a husband said to avoid arguments with the wife. Should I come up with this again, I asked. He nodded unconvincingly.
But then he ate most of the cakes for his breakfast. So it could not be that bad since he is very fussy about cakes.
As for me, as much as I love the yogurt, but I find that the cake is very plain and lack the the certain oomph in it. I am not too sure what kind of X-factor I am looking for.

But, to finish off the yogurt in the fridge, this is not a bad choice. And at least, I've done another recipe from my cookbook collections. Investment slowly paid off.

PS: nobody got food poisoning after eating this cake.