Whisking Up A Challenge

So begins my Canadian baking adventure with Mary Berry... well, with one of her recipe books that is!

Hi! So this is my very first blog, and my first blog entry. I am thrilled, excited, and still not quite sure what I am getting myself into, but I am loving the idea of forcing myself to get better at baking. I have always loved food, and my Grandma and my Mum have been great role models with introducing me to the wonderful world of baking and cooking. They've shared their recipes, tips, and love for baking with me. I have been lucky to have had the same experience that many of us have growing up... licking the spoons, helping roll out cookie dough, etc. But, somewhere along the way cooking and baking became harder for me. I'm not exactly sure what happened. Don't get me wrong! Not everything I make turns out to be a disaster! I do make wonderful homemade soup, if I do say so myself! But sometimes my other attempted baked creations do turn into a soupy, sloppy mess. College life also put the brakes on keeping up with making proper meals, and never mind having time to bake a cake, which at times I desperately wanted to do and just sit and eat the whole thing... :) College tends to do that to you...

So, putting that behind me, I've realized I have simply lost my confidence in the kitchen. "How do all those dishes pile up in the sink?" Is something else I've wondered. I find I panic and just keep grabbing new utensils as I'm cooking or baking, and then before I know it the whole kitchen is in disarray. So, this is also something that needs addressing, and I am also hoping to improve this as well as I go along. During my last year of college, my sister and I would occasionally watch The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. We instantly fell in love with the show... who wouldn't love baking in an open tent in the English countryside? It seemed so relaxing... something that baking has lost for me over the years. Is it something to do with growing older? Why can't I get back to that same childhood wonder when I was helping my Grandma whip the cream, or with my Mum putting jam into butterfly cupcakes? Well, I'm hoping I can find that again and become more at ease with recipes from start to finish. Before I had even discovered the show, a good friend of mine had sent me "Mary Berry's Baking Bible." After seeing the show, and watching the participants bake her recipes, I realized I would love to try them someday too. Now that I have more time, I'm excited to jump into her recipe book. I even bought a new apron for my challenge! It has maple syrup jugs on, so I think it truly embraces the Canadian title of my blog.

Feeling a little like I am in the middle of the movie Julie and Julia, I am a bit apprehensive as I greatly do not want to upset Mary Berry. I am merely doing this for fun, to improve my own skills, and to share my adventures with those who care to follow along my journey with me. I will not be including the recipes, but I will let readers know which page in the book the recipe came from, and some helpful tips with converting temperatures and measurements for use in Canadian kitchens. After deciding to take on this challenge, and researching blogs, I have seen there are already some Mary Berry blogs out there, but I am very much looking forward to my very own baking challenge! My family is from England, and I am Canadian, so this feels like I am baking in both of the countries that I hold in my heart. We will see how things go...the goal is one recipe from the book at least every two weeks. I will switch between cakes, breads, muffins, etc. Well, I can't eat cakes all month, can I? :)

So, I will end with "Ready, Set, BAKE!"

~* First Bake Coming Soon *~