A touch of Claire- baking, cooking& life

After centuries' not being able to bake a bread (total excuse/too lazy/distracted by someone..lol), I finally couldn't stand eating sweet potatoes and store-sold breads as breakfast anymore. And since I've been craved for so many different recipes of sourdough bread during my procrastinate-to-bake-a-bread period, I decided to make a all-inclusive bread  ~(￣▽￣)~* The sourdough starter was cultured with rye flour for one day before the bread was made so that there is extra something flavor- rye& sourdough√ Two of my favorite grains/seeds: flaxseeds and bulgur were soaked and added to the dough; lots of flavors and texture- flaxseeds& bulgur√ Sweet potatoes!!! My secret ingredient of bread since it adds both flavors (especially a subtle hint of sweetness) and moisture.√ Quinoa (soaked) was added to the dough and (dried) was dusted on top of the bread to give lots of crunchiness. I was inspired by a local bakery, which has the best millet banana bread- th

Ever felt that the cake you are trying is too sweet/rich? I guess that is one of the biggest complaints most of my (Asian especially) friends have as for the store-sold desserts. Ever thought about the solution to it? For me, it is to balance! I haven't been baking as often (for some reason) but a really good friend of mine was having her Birthday party this Saturday, so I got to make something (I mean, a cake). I used to be really afraid of high-cal cake recipes and was pretty keen on finding low-cal substitutes. But now I rather eat a smaller piece or eat less frequently, yet fully embrace the great flavors of butter, chocolate and cream. For this reason, the cake does contain a whole lot of cream (considering it was shared by almost 20 people, wasn't that bad, hmm? ), but the richness was actually balanced by my secret ingredients: almond and green tea. Apologies for that I didn't take pictures at the party when the cake was sliced, but please imagine the