2021 Recap and a New Years Cake!

Happy 2022!!!!! How did that even happen?!?! I thought I’d make a blogpost talking about all the baking related things that I accomplished in 2021, and some of my goals for this year.

But first, I made a TWO TIERED cake!!!!! And I wanted to talk about it and how it went, like how I published the story of my bake sale. I decided to make this cake for New Years this year, and it actually went pretty well. To start, I watched some cake tiering videos and (with help from my mom and the Great British Baking Show) I decided on the flavors. The top tier (a 5” mini cake) was piƱa colada flavored, it had a coconut cake and pineapple curd, and the bottom tier (an 8” cake) was coffee walnut cake with chocolate ganache. They were both SOO incredible, though by the end of baking them I’d used up all the sugar and flour we had in the house!

I’m not that great at vegan buttercream and cake decorating, so I tried to make aquafaba Swiss meringue buttercream and it curdled. It was sooo annoying, but especially at the end because my mom figured out a trick to fix it, adding in a tiny bit of hot milk and whipping more. The thing was that by then I’d already iced the cake with the curdled stuff, and she’d only fixed the light blue buttercream I’d saved for decoration. Even though this was really frustrating and I’m such a perfectionist, I decided that the cake was perfect just the way it was. And besides, the flavor is really what matters. I wrote “feelin’ 2022” on the cake in honor of Taylor Swift’s song “22,” and it was really the perfect way to ring in the new year.

So now for the 2021 recap! Starting in January when I was JUST starting to get into baking. I only baked like 4 things that month, which (strangely I guess) seems kind of weird to me now. I developed my first recipe, wacky cake, almost exactly a year ago too. In February I did a lot of chocolatiering, something I really love, and helped make my own birthday cake! In March I still didn’t bake very much, but developed my first seasonal recipe. I have definitely learned a lot more about recipe developing since then. In April and May, I started realizing that baking was something I really liked to do. I made a few recipes, but mostly enjoyed making blogposts about other food related things and was in a very big fancy breakfast phase. In June I really enjoyed making reels and baking in between online classes, I made my brother a b-day cake and made a summer recipe. And then July! I had my goal of 30 summer bakes, and by far that month I baked the most. I made 2 cakes and a lemon meringue pie, some of the yummiest things I tasted this year.

In August I started making some Instagram friends, and joining baking collabs, growing my IG was extremely fun. I also made croissants for the first time that month, and I was so proud of them and myself. In September I went back to school, but still tried to cram in some summer baking, then at the end of September and beginning of October I was in an extremely stressful macaron failing stretch that ended up okay. Then it got to November and December! In Nov I focused on Instagram a lot, and made Tiramisu. And December was my bake sale!! The bake sale was definitely the coolest thing I’ve done this year, except for this two tiered cake and keeping up this baking blog. It. Has. Been. CRAZY.

In 2022, I want to continue this baking diary (blogging!) and grow my online platform. I also want to have more bake sales, and maybe even start taking orders. Mostly though, I just want to keep growing as a baker and use baking to help myself with my perfectionism. Thank you so much for reading this and supporting me, I can’t wait to see what 2022 has to offer!

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