Sick day.

It’s mid-day on a weekday and I got to bake. This is pretty rare since I’m usually at work at this hour. This baking opportunity wasn’t for the best of reasons. Our little guy is sick so I stayed home with him. Liz stayed home yesterday. Fortunately, he’s feeling much better now so he should be back at school tomorrow.

What to do today?

He was pretty under the weather in the morning so it was lots of fluids and rest for him. We just relaxed in the living room and we took the opportunity to watch a movie together. We watched Big Hero 6. It’s an action packed animated Disney movie. Even though we’d already watched the movie in theatres, we loved it!

Once the movie was over, we had some lunch and since he appeared to be a little peppier, I surprised him with his next super fun activity! Homework 😉 He didn’t agree with this being ‘super fun’, but he didn’t argue or complain…too much.

I guess I can bake now.

While he worked on his school work in the dining room, I took advantage of the opportunity to do a little baking. I had already planned this recipe a few days ago and I had everything I needed, so I knew this would be easy.

Learning from mistakes.

I’ve been cooking for a long time, but baking is something I only took up in the past few years. I find that with baking, the little details and accuracy matter a lot more. For example, if an extra clove of garlic happens to fall into a stew, it’s not a big deal and the stew will still taste great. Baking’s not quite as forgiving. One teaspoon of baking powder–added or forgotten–can change a lot! This need for attention to detail used to bother me, but once I decided I wanted to have more home-made treats, I got over it. I’ve adapted–I’ve practiced–I’ve messed up and then tried again; and I’ve learned a lot. Now I really enjoy baking and there’s never a good enough reason not to have home-made desserts at home. Of course, now I’ve lost my waistline… but that’s another story for another day.

Almond cake.

I happened to have one of those large bags of almonds from Costco at home and that’s what inspired me to create this recipe in the first place. I mean…there are a lot of almonds in that bag–I had to do something with them.

The recipe is pretty straight forward. The one thing that’s a little less common is the almond paste. Many recipes out there call for store-bought, and I’m sure that would be absolutely fine to use. I would have used it myself if I’d found it at my local grocery stores. That would have made this recipe even easier and quicker to make. If, like me, you can’t find it and you’re up for a little extra work, you can make the almond paste yourself. I ended up using a very simple recipe for almond paste that I found on Taste of Home‘s website.

Hey… I’m not saying I never buy store-bought desserts, but there’s always something extra delicious about baking something myself at home.

If you are like I used to be about baking desserts, I challenge you to give it a go. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake and try again, and as always, eat well, friends!

Sick day. It's mid-day on a weekday and I got to bake. This is pretty rare since I'm usually at work at this hour. This baking opportunity wasn't for the best of reasons. Our little guy is sick so I stayed home with him. Liz stayed home yesterday. Fortunately, he's feeling much better today, so he should be back at school tomorrow. What to do? Since I wasn't sure how he'd feel at the beginning of the day, we just chilled in the living room. This gave him some time to do a little more resting. Since we were just hanging out, we took the opportunity to watch a movie together. We watched Big Hero 6. It's an action packed animated Disney movie. Even though we'd already watched the movie in theatres, we loved it! Once the movie was over, we had some lunch and I surprised him with his next super fun activity! Homework ;-) Okay, so he didn't see it as super fun, but I figured he could catch up on lost work since he looked like he was feeling better. I guess I can bake? Since he was at the dining room table (beside our kitchen), I took advantage of the opportunity to do a little baking while being close enough to help him when needed. I had already planned this recipe out a few days ago. This cake isn't from my mom's book of traditions, so I had to do a bit more research. My usual approach is to look at 5 or 6 popular recipes to search for common basic ingredients in the dish I'm about to make. Then I add and take away ingredients, and come up with my own list of steps to make it my own. Learning from mistakes. I've been cooking for a long time, but baking is something I only took up in the past few years. I find that with baking, the little details and accuracy matter a lot more. For example, if extra clove of garlic falls into a stew accidentally, it's probably not a big deal and it'll still taste great. Baking's not quite as forgiving. One little teaspoon of baking powder can change a lot! I've really enjoyed baking and I've taken advantage of my mistakes to improve my kitchen skills. Almond cake. I happened to have one of those large bags of almonds from Costco at home and that's what inspired me to make this cake. The recipe is pretty straight forward. The one thing that's a little less common is the almond paste. Many recipes out there use store-bought. This is probably very good and I encourage you to find some at a store near you to keep the recipe simple. In my case, I couldn't find this paste at any of my local grocery stores. If you're up for a little extra work, I ended up finding a very simple recipe for almond paste on Taste of Home's website. My guess is that this is better than store-bought, but it was a little extra work. Don't be afraid to test new things in the kitchen, and as always, eat well, friends! WP Recipe Maker #2503remove Simple Almond Cake This almond cake is a no-frills simple and delicious cake. If you're looking for something without heavy creams or icing, This is the perfect dessert!

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