Baking With Olympia
It’s amazing what kids will get you to do...like baking. Baking has never been my strength and I’ve just never had the time to spend on it. But since I’ve been home the past year more than ever before, I’ve really leveled up my baking skills. Remember when I tried to make gluten-free chocolate chip cookies a little while back?
I didn't know a whisk from a measuring cup, and when I finally found the brown sugar, it was rock-solid. So, going from questionable cookies to gourmet rainbow cakes wasn’t in the cards for me...or so I thought.
As with so many people around the world, it started with bread for me. Seeing everyone else baking their own fresh bread inspired me to try it myself. I worked really hard on my home-made baguettes, and even though they didn’t come out great at first, I kept at it. Now, I can proudly say that I know how to make my very own baguettes. Including delicious, beautiful, gluten-free ones.
After bread, I moved on to cinnamon rolls - one of the most delicious foods in the world (in my humble opinion), especially when combined with caramel apples! Getting my cinnamon rolls just right in the pan gives me a certain satisfaction. Plus, I discovered a hack for getting heavy cream into the rolls evenly (for those who don’t know, the cream adds amazing moisture to the inside of the rolls) - use a baby bottle!
Genius, right? It’s definitely one of the most unexpected benefits of #momlife, but it’s seriously the perfect tool for getting the liquid into the center of the rolls.
The biggest upside of baking is definitely getting to spend time with Olympia. Now that she’s older, Olympia is becoming such a great baking assistant and it’s been so fun to bake together. Like when she baked a chocolate Hello Kitty-shaped cake for the first time.
We used a pretty straightforward recipe, and since Olympia loves experimenting with unexpected ingredient combinations (just like her mama), she added some grape to the cake. The cake turned out so well and the grape was the chef’s kiss, as they say. I was the proudest mama!
