Baking, resurrected?

UPDATE: Our friends have moved into a place. This place has an oven--small, but quite functional. STAY TUNED, PEOPLE. Things may be looking up for my lonely sweet tooth......

Things I Miss Making.

I love to cook. It's super satisfying for me to make a meal that I really enjoy. Even better is getting to eat it with people I care about.

My brother posing with one of our victims this past Thanksgiving.

I also love to bake. Having a funny, little, camping-style stove-range with two burners is a real space saver in my tiny apartment. Sadly, with no oven, baking is out of the question. Cakes in Korea are a little different. I'm no science girl, so I'm not quite sure what gives cake it's "pizazz".. maybe it's the baking powder... possibly the butter. Eggs? Either way, I search for most cake-making supplies, and aside from not seeing any baking powder (which I couldn't spot written in Korean if it were kicking me in the face), I haven't noticed any unavailable ingredients. Flour, check. Eggs, milk, sugar, check. Vanilla, check. On down the list, everything's here, but the cakes... well, they don't taste the same. They have this spongey, tasteless quality that brings tears to my eyes every time a birthday rolls around. The chocolate ones are particularly nasty, and I suspect fake chocolate substitute is to blame.

Instead of cake, I actually prefer their lightly sweetened "bek sol ki"..a.k.a: white snow rice cakes. They're these dense, non-gelatinous rice cakes--super filling, and like the name suggests, made of white rice. Absolutely delicious.

bek sol ki

Their cake decorating is spectacular, but for those of you who bake, you'll know what I mean when I say everything tastes like the fat has been substituted with applesauce. While healthier, I'm sure, I miss a good old buttercream-covered, artery-clogging confection.

Looks nice from the outside, eh? Can't judge a book by it's cover....?

In light of this, I thought I'd post some of my previous creations and cry myself to sleep while I dream of each of them melting in my mouth.

Strawberry rhubarb pie.

Iced lemon cookies (painted with food coloring), garnished with a white chocolate bird (also painted with food coloring).

Stollen for Christmas

A cake for my sister-in-law's baby shower.

My gingerbread friends, complete with Pervert and Cop.

I'll give you something to cry about.