Every day is a perfect baking day.

The Vancouver weather has been fluctuating again this past week, alternating between warm, sunny days and windy, rainy days. I don't mind it too much, because nothing really dampens my mood for baking.

Every day is a perfect baking day. If it's sunny, loads of sunshine stream through the kitchen windows and I feel really at peace looking out into the garden as I mix the dough and hum a happy tune. If it's raining, I'd have to stay indoors anyway and nothing adds more to the feeling of coziness than the smell of freshly baked pastries while it's cold and raining outside. Baking is so soothing, rain or shine.

I'm not an optimist, it's the truth.

Last week, I tried another recipe from "Boutique Baking" and made a marble coffee cake. For some reason, I couldn't find my Bundt cake pan so it didn't turn out quite the way as I had expected, but it was deemed a success by my classmates nonetheless (phew!). This week, I was lent Dr. Oetker's "German Baking Today", a fantastic recipe book full of delicious-looking German pastries that I had never thought of trying before! I looked through it and bookmarked a few recipes.

Yesterday, I tried my first one. I always feel bad for making only sweet things like cookies and cakes, because my grandma has diabetes and she can never have any of it. So I decided to try out the recipe for ham and cheese croissants! And, as it turns out, it worked and tastes fine despite the fact that I forgot to shape them into, well, croissants before putting them in the oven. Oh well.

I don't really eat much of what I bake, to be honest, but I guess my grandparents will be having ham and cheese croissants for breakfast these next few days!

My plan was to try the recipe for plum cake next, maybe on Monday so I can bring it to class on Tuesday. But I ended up staying home today and didn't have much to do, so I wandered around the house until I decided to rummage through the kitchen cupboards to see what ingredients we had at home.

And somehow, I ended up making chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. They actually turned out really nicely and taste great, even though I made them for the sole purpose of using up my remaining chocolate chips. I made at least four dozen of them, so I suppose I'll be bringing these instead of the plum cake to class first! I also saved a fair amount for my grandpa to enjoy during his afternoon teatimes. I hope he likes them.

Oh dear, my blog is slowly turning into a baking diary, isn't it? I promise it's only a phase, I'll eventually tire of it and write about something else.

But honestly, who cares, right? Who doesn't like looking at pictures of food!