Now, I'm at university and don't have time to cook and bake, or money to buy ingredients all the time. Yes, it is usually cheaper to bake than to buy the same number of cookies or a gourmet cake, but in reality I don't want a whole batch of cookies or a whole cake to myself, even if over the space of a week or so. So practicality demands that I buy single pre-made cookies and baked goods, usually of inferior quality, but they're enough to satisfy a craving.
I do really miss baking sometimes, and the smells of warm vanilla and caramelized sugar wafting from the oven. I miss cooking new and interesting dishes, and experimenting with different flavors. And now, I do wish I'd gotten pictures of some of my more impressive creations, like the finally successful macarons, mille-fueilles, chocolate truffle tartelettes (which I had to do gluten-free for an uncle of mine!), and strawberry-vanilla floating islands, complete with fluffy homemade marshmallow. But right now, I really just wanted to bake a simple carrot cake, with cream cheese icing. (Well by "wanted to" I really mean that it makes use of the carrots and icing sugar that have been sitting around for far too long and cluttering up my fridge/pantry.)
Carrot cake honestly isn't really my thing - or, not my "cake of choice" so to speak. Although upon eating it I do find it delicious, but I probably wouldn't choose to make it if I didn't have carrots that needed using up, and I definitely wouldn't choose to make it without cream cheese icing, king of all cake icings. This is the best simple carrot cake recipe I've come across, it's one I got from my aunt. It makes a small round cake, with a not-too-heavy texture and slightly spiced flavor. (Recipe included below).
I made these peanut butter and chocolate chip buttons too, inspired by 17andbaking, to use up some peanut butter and sugar. Didn't use the same peanut butter cookie recipe, (and kind of made up my own, really) and the texture of mine was very light and crisp, not your typical peanut butter cookie but still tasty.
It's easy to be a good cook or baker. Really. You've just got to approach it with the right mindset - which is, that it's very difficult to ruin food. If you've got some chicken breast or something all you have to do is put it in a pan and watch and cook it until it's done, and you've got something palatable. Maybe not very interesting, but still good to eat. Add a little salt, spices, butter, lemon juice, or herbs to that chicken as it cooks, and you've got something flavorful and delicious. If you're looking to bake cookies or a cake all you have to do is mix butter, sugar, egg, and flour together in the right proportions, which you can learn by following simple recipes. The carrot cake I made was even slightly adapted from the "real recipe" as I didn't want to buy a banana, and I used different amounts of spices, so I used different things instead. Everyone has their mistakes and things that haven't turned out well - don't let a few "failures" make you think you're a bad cook!(Unless you're masquerading as a bad cook just to get others to cook for you, in which case it's a shame you don't enjoy the art-form that is food preparation, and the satisfaction of eating your own creations!)
P.S. And the ingredients/basic recipe for the carrot cake:
Grandma Brown’s Carrot Cake
2 eggs
¼ c. oil
½ c. sugar
½ tsp. mixed spice
½ tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ c. grated carrot
1 banana, mashed
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1.
Mix dry ingredients (last 3).
2.
Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees C (300 degrees F).
Beat together first 6 ingredients and add carrot and banana.
3.
Combine with dry ingredients.
4.
Bake for 20-30 minutes.
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