i never bake

It's true, I don't. I find the act of baking to be incredibly tedious, and often times, boring. The funny thing is, I worked as a pastry chef when I was first starting out in my culinary career. After realizing I'd be incredibly lucky if I ever managed to make more than $13 p/h, I decided to maybe consider moving into the cooking side of kitchens. I ended up getting some great opportunities, and I never looked back. Baking and pastry always felt like work, but cooking? Cooking was [and still is] fun. Cooking leaves more room for error, and as a result, also leaves more room for experimentation. When you mess up a baking recipe, you're pretty much screwed. However, cooking doesn't really require recipes at all. I've never been much of an instruction-reader or a rule-follower, so cooking was right up my alley. 

Now that I don't do either as my job, I sometimes miss whipping up a cake, or baking a batch of cookies. But by the time I pull out my measuring cups, the thought of also having to deal with a mixer, and possibly even a candy thermometer, makes me cringe. I get flashbacks of separating dozens of eggs and finding flour in some of the oddest and most unexpected body parts. Tedious, indeed. So when I come across baking recipes I find enticing, I always just think to myself, "That looks good", and then move on with my life. There isn't even the tiniest part of me that ever thinks it's worth giving it a shot.

Out of nowhere last week, I got an intense urge to not only eat some sort of apple cake, but to actually BAKE one. I don't take these rare urges lightly, so I started researching every type of apple cake recipe imaginable. I finally decided on this Apple Yogurt Cake, and, boy, am I happy I did. Not only was it ridiculously easy (no mixer required!), it was also one of the best cakes I've EVER made. The olive oil is key. I find that cakes that require butter as their fat tend to often times end up pretty dry... and there are few sadder things to me than a dry cake. I opted to not cover it with foil for the last leg of baking because I'm big on cakes with crustier edges and tops. I, also, used part coconut oil for the cinnamon swirl because I was low on butter. A cake recipe that's super simple and can be altered if need be is all it takes to get me hooked.