A little under two years ago, when I was hired at my current job, I took up baking as a small hobby. I had dabbled before in box mixes for cookies or brownies, but I had never made anything from scratch.
My first attempt was to make something much too ambitious for someone with no experience: a multi-layered black forest cake. It tasted fine, but it was extremely messy and lopsided. I then tried making raspberry cupcakes, but the result was—in my opinion—a disaster. It again tasted fine, but it was lumpy and rather flat, making it unpleasant to eat.
I started over with a simple recipe for peanut butter cookies, which called for ‘natural’ peanut butter, giving it a more subtle taste. I took them to work to share with coworkers, and after the positive response I decided to try making something new which I could take to work every month or two. Just a little thing to offer that might give someone a boost for the day. But I wanted to find recipes that went beyond generic treats.
This time last year I took in about fifty cupcakes (with a few variants, for people with a chocolate allergy), a recipe I assembled from ideas I got from other bakers online and from what I had learned the previous several months. At first, most of my coworkers assumed they were store-bought, but were excited when they found out I had made them myself.
After several more desserts over the previous year, this week I took in a large batch of cheesecake. By the end of the work day, several people had tracked me down in the building to tell me how much they enjoyed them.
Reviews included:
It’s absurd how good those were.
That was heavenly.
This seriously made my day.
These were absolutely next-level.
I don’t typically eat the desserts I make, so I often don’t know what they taste like. Too much sugar for me.