Saturday, December 26, 2009

And I Can Almost Hear The Choirs Of Angels Singing...


I've always had a soft spot for pastry. Since young, I would find myself fascinated by the nimble hands of bakers and pastry artists sculpting beautiful little pieces of edible art, then line them all up like pretty maids in a row on those sturdy wooden shelves, and just letting me admire them sitting there, glowing and gleaming in their shiny fruity glaze under the amber hues of the display lights.

And after watching Julie & Julia on the plane back from New York City, I'm inspired to do the same as Julie did. So here I am, creating my very own virtual canvas where I can paint my culinary creativity, make my imagination tangible, and share with the world this loving relationship I have with pastry.

Let's get the basics down first:

I call the kitchen I work in my pastry lab.
I'm superbly inspired by Nigella Lawson. She is such a beautiful woman that brings so much love and passion to food - it's highly infectious.
I'm born and bred in Singapore, but am presently attending college in New York.
And today is a special day. It's my dad's birthday! Plus, it's Christmas time, so I've been going crazy in my pastry lab whipping up sugary treats over and over again. I find it immensely liberating to just totter about the kitchen and dabble in some culinary treats and tricks - as amateur as they may often be but nonetheless still exceedingly enjoyable.

I find it a necessity to bake a sugary treat whenever I'm meeting friends - and that happens a lot over Christmas time. Let's see, so far I've made little cherry chocolate cupcakes, cranberry banana and white chocolate muffins, almond biscuits, granny boyd's biscuits, classic chocolate muffins and brownies, sugar cookies, panna cotta with cherry compote...

My mom is yelling at me for making her gain a kilogram ever since I returned home for the winter break (which was just last Tuesday).

Nevertheless, Christmas morning without a sugary treat is like eating a bagel without cream cheese. So I woke up yesterday morning and whipped up some classic Grand Marnier-infused dark chocolate muffins with my special chocolate peanut butter swirl chips and shimmering gold dust. Watching those golden powdery gems fall against the dark brown chocolate mounds reminds me of Nigella doing the same on her Christmas fruit cake...

"...And you can almost hear the choirs of angels singing..."


Have yourself a merry little Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

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