Setting the scene

Last night I sat down with the cookbook to figure out exactly what I have gotten myself into; to do the math as it were. You would think this is an exercise I would have done before setting myself up for the challenge but I like to do things backwards, in fact I’ve got it down to a fine art.

So there are 60 recipes, divided into six sections: cupcakes, cakes, pies, muffins, brownies & bars and cookies.

Some are relatively easy such as the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes; others are going to be a little more tricky like making a pie crust from scratch (I’ve watched my mum do it and it ain’t easy!); then there are others which, to put it euphemistically, will be an acquired taste (ginger cupcakes anyone?).

I am dreading (yet excited about) looking for some of the more difficult-to-find ingredients like the lavender flowers, blueberries, pecan nuts and key limes. A friend of mine suggested substitutions for some ingredients and ultimately compromises will have to be made. However I will try to stay as true to the book as possible, and apply to friends and family to send stuff from abroad if necessary! After all, what’s the point of taking on a challenge if you don’t do it authentically!

I am not giving myself a fixed deadline but am vaguely thinking of finishing before my 31^st birthday (21 November) but since I have a full time job and I don’t want to have a nervous breakdown in the process, I will take it at my own pace. BUT – I hope to be done before March next year!

Here’s to a year full of baking and sampling – it’s time to START COOKING :)

The cookbook arrives in the mail

The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook arrived in the mail this morning. More precisely, it arrived on Saturday but I wasn't in the office that day so I received it today. It is a beautiful 140-page book with recipes (and lots of pictures!!) for cupcakes, cakes, pies, cookies and cheesecakes.

The book is a present from my friend Sam. She and I haven't really been in touch for a while except for the sporadic Facebook messages so this was a totally out-of-the-blue gift for me. Sam, like all my other friends, has been witnessing my baking frenzy via Facebook these last few weeks.

I have always been rather partial to baking but things have really heated up (excuse the awful pun) since the end of January when I randomly decided to bake some vanilla cupcakes based on a recipe from a website. All the praise for the cupcakes went to my head and since then I have been on a mission to bake every new recipe I can get my hands on.

I'm really excited to start baking all the recipes in the cookbook and tasting the results (I will have to be careful about that). Hopefully, one of these days I will make it to London and taste the real thing at The Hummingbird Bakery on Portobello Road or South Kensington.