For many years, I had a phobia about baking. You see, I love to cook and have a passion for creating quick and easy new dishes from old traditional recipes. However, every cake or muffin I ever baked was either dry or simply lacked flavor. At the onset of the holidays, my phobia forced panicky check in calls to the “family bakers” ensuring home baked goods would be on hand for family holiday meals. One day I asked my sister, who is the family Christmas cookie provider every year, what I was doing wrong. She replied with a chuckle, “Kath, you can bake, it’s easy. The difference between baking and cooking is to follow the recipe EXACTLY when baking. Once you master a baking recipe then put your own spin on it.” Those words stuck in my head and in 2009, I overcame my baking phobia. I started out baking simple recipes followed by a whole lot of reading....
