Uh-oh, I baked… you've been warned!

The discovery that I have been baking is generally met with about the same enthusiasm as the discovery that one needs a root-canal – mostly dread and trepidation. Oh and a pain in the mouth! That’s fine, I’m the first to admit that I’m not a natural baker. However embracing my role as full time mum, I feel it’s time to step up and don the apron, so to speak.

It seems my problem is in following recipes. I can’t. It’s not that I can’t read and follow simple instructions; it’s that I don’t want to - mostly because I’ve just read how many cups of sugar are actually in a batch of cupcakes/cookies/fudge! Ignorance is such a nice place to be at times, but alas, once I’ve discovered the truth, it’s hard to continue on with the recipe as is. There in lies my problem. Personally, I like to see it more as my creativity and pro-activeness towards living a healthier lifestyle, but it seems my pasty chef partner would disagree. You see, I then feel obliged to find a healthier alternative to the ingredient that I have taken exception to, be it sugar, white flour, 3 blocks of melted chocolate. You get the idea.

This is when things start to get a little, ahem, off the beater's track, shall we say. Apparently with baking, you need to be precise (and bloody perfect) and that is just not my style (the precise bit, not the perfect bit :o). See the thing is, not only do I swap ingredients from the naughty list for healthier options (or simply halve the amounts), but I often start to make something without first checking the pantry for what I'll need, only to discover half way through I’m missing 4 key ingredients. Silly of me, I know, however I do this because baking is rarely a premeditated task (why would I subject my family to such pain), but instead more of a spur of the moment decision that often leaves me cursing into the pantry (and others running for cover).

But I’m a positive person so I try and make do and let my creativity run riot. I liken my baking style to my approach to life – I tend to jump headfirst into things, I’m not much of a planner - I’m more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl (if you don’t get the movie reference, shame on you!), I don’t much like being told what to do and I think I’m pretty pro-active when it comes to leading a healthy, more sustainable lifestyle. While these qualities can be seen as positive in life (well geez, I like to think so), sadly, the end result of my baking is not always so.

Today I baked gluten free Coconut Cupcakes – the recipe wasn’t for gluten free, but true to style, I swapped half the ingredients for healthier options and for what I actually had in the pantry. The end result is, hmmm, how shall I describe it? Um, perhaps Coconut Rockcakes would be a more accurate description. And being a waste not, want not type of gal, I’ll have to force someone to eat them. Sadly for my yoga-mums group, it will be their unfortunate fate this week! But hey, they’re healthy and you can feel good eating them knowing that they won’t rot your teeth and you can avoid that root-canal. That’s gotta make you happy!

 Yum, my coconut rockcakes - they won't rot your teeth, but they may break them!