Giving up on baking, again, temporarily
Last time I stopped baking, my reason was because there were so many others doing it that I didn't feel there was any space for my own baking to fit in, especially when the things created by all those other people were really quite spectacular (the photos in that blog post still manage to strike some awe in me). This time, I'm giving it a break for quite the opposite reason: because nobody's baking at all.
For the last several months I've been baking (or not baking, since some of the things don't involve the oven) a variety of desserts for special occasions (namely birthdays) and other reasons: practice, boredom, because I wanted to take a photo, etc. I've shared those desserts with friends, family, co-workers (one of whom is my new baking guinea pig), and don't mind going out of my way and travelling some distance to get slices of cake into other peoples' mouths.
As fun as it is to share food with everybody, I've recently started feeling that the whole endeavour is a very one-sided affair. Nobody else seems to be making cakes or other desserts to share any more, and even on those occasions when someone might be expected to bring cake, like the stupid tradition at work where the birthday person is to bring the cake (Surely it should be the other way around? What ever happened to spoiling someone on their birthday?), all of my co-workers have resorted to just buying a cake from the nearby supermarket.
I don't want to eat a supermarket-bought cake! I want to yell at them. I want to see you guys try something, letting all of us revel in each other's baking abilities, no matter how crappy!
Suddenly, the amount of effort put into what I bring, vs the amount of effort put into what the others at work are bringing, is disproportionate enough to give me that whole 'one-sided relationship' feeling.
So, just 1 more cake. 1 more cake for my new baking guinea pig's birthday (later this month) and that will be the last big baking endeavour I undertake for the rest of this year.