Why Bake?

There is something about baking that has always entranced me. The ability to produce something delicious from simple, (or not so simple) ingredients and share it with the people you love. I remember watching my Dad when I was a little girl. He would add and mix different powders and liquids and poof! Warm peanut butter cookies would come magically out of the oven. I wanted to do this too, and I observed with a hungry curiosity. How did his cinnamon rolls turn out so gooey? Or how did he get the pineapple at the top of his pineapple upside-down cake? Back then, baking was a source of enticing mystery to me.

Now, several years later, I see baking as more of a science than a mystery. But also admit that my knowledge, or ability to do so, is mysteriously lacking. Needless to say, my close study of my dad as a child, was not close enough...and mostly forgotten. But, as an adult, I have revived my interest in baking and am resolved to get a good education in it. I want to struggle with it's techniques and share my triumphs with those I love. My goal, in the end? To produce something...magical!