Hello me. Ive been so busy lately, with iloveitsew and all, that my mind is so preoccupied. I thought I was equipped, gamed to conquer the treacherous world (wide web). But alas, my sword has fallen short and my armour has failed me. The triumphant victory or victorious triumph that I envisioned, eluded me. So what does one do when one feels like all, but not ALL is lost? Bake. Well, at least for me. To me, baking is an art of containing chaos in a cup. Delicious sweet chocolatey rich chaos in a cup. And yet, it is with this chaos that I feel like I am most in control. Maybe it's the step by step recipes to follow. Maybe it's the knowing that no matter what, things will turn out alright (maybe with a little fixing, but still alright). Let me explain, first. The preparation. Bringing out the ingredients one by one, knowing full well that you have prepared everything. It's not often that people experience this level of assuredness in life. Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, milk, cocoa, salt, vanilla essence, baking powder, baking soda. There you have it, the ingredients to make the chaos. Measuring it out is a whole other joy. Yes I do have a recipe to follow. But like jack sparrow's old friend barbossa said, these things are merely guidelines. In goes a little more chocolate, in goes a little more this and that and wala, a perfect recipe, tweaked to a perfection only I would understand. Now comes the creaming. "cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy." I've always found it amazing how two things can come together and create light-ness and fluffy-ness. Only butter and sugar can. Creamy oily sugary goodness with two of the simplest ingredients. Don't judge a book by its cover. Being light and fluffy doesn't make it easy to attain. In fact, one of the most important steps in baking is creaming the butter and sugar, to ensure that just the right amount of air is in the batter to help get things going. Next, sifting the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Another favourite part of mine to see the white flour and dark cocoa mix to form marbles of powder blending and cracking with each scoop. Then we crack the eggs into the creamed mixture, adding the vanilla as well for the extra oomph. letting it go all gooey knowing full well the next step would create wonders. Alternating the flour mixture and milk is a tricky one. I suggest, start with the flour first, alternating with the milk, and always finish the flour mixture first. Because you can always get more milk, but you can't get more right proportion of flour and cocoa powder and etcetc. When in life do you get this kind of knowledge that you can so easily apply? Well, maybe there is somewhere else, but baking is one of the easiest way aint it? Finally, an avenue for me to apply knowledge! No one can say you are wrong because it is my trick and my cupcake.it gives me a sense of peace folding in the light brown flour mixture, into the creamed mixture to get a rich dark chocolate brown that looks so tempting. Of course, don't eat the batter because the egg is still raw. Scooping the batter into the cupcake cups, is another art. With two spoons as tools, one spoon to scoop, one spoon to clean the other out. I feel very satisfied to have a clean tray with no drips. That is my ultimate goal. Putting it in the oven is the only part I dread. Because I have no control over that whatsoever. I have grilled cupcakes before because of the wrong oven settings. But no matter. As much as professional bakers warn never to re-cook your baked goods, I still do that if I'm not satisfied. Comes out just fine. And if Im still not happy, I can carve and sculpt the cupcake the way I want it to look. Then comes the icing. The icing on the cake. No wonder they use it as a phrase. The icing on the cake truly is the icing on the cake! It covers up all flaws, and at the same time, enhances the flavour of the cake. Along with beautifully coloured fondant, the final product looks almost too good to be true. But that's not all, there's still the cleaning up. Washing and soaping all the oily chocolatey goo off, is therapeutic actually, makes you have a sense of achievement after everything. Washing up also comprises of showering after s long night of smelling like butter. And now, settling down to go to sleep, it is this feeling I get, the fact that God gave me the ability to create something of out nothing. It keeps me going. It is actually the first time I've gained such enlightenment about baking. I've never thought of it this way before, only thought it was something I enjoyed doing. But yes it makes me happy and yes I feel accomplished. I'll never look at baking the same way again. You've guessed it, I love my chaos in a cup.

snll drifted away at 9:34 AM ----------