Baking Bad

Back in December 2025, I bought my first stand mixer to finally try baking. My only experience with baking is from baking pre-made cake mixes and making cupcakes in an oven toaster or a full cake in a rice cooker. Where I'm from, it's not common for families to have ovens, some would have an oven toaster and that's it. I've always wanted to bake but something always got in the way. When I was young and lived with my parents, every time I tried to bake, my mother would get mad at me for wasting electricity. When I finally started renting a condo, I moved quite often and every unit only had small kitchenettes. Renting condos in the Philippines is not the same as renting an apartment here in Austria. A lot of units often come fully furnished and in small sizes. It's uncommon for people to just purchase pricey furnitures and bring them into their apartments unless they decide to live there for a long time.

To be honest, it's not even something I thought about often. I lived in Metro Manila where I can get any kind of food I want. Even when I decided to do low carb, there were several ghost kitchens offering prepared meals including desserts that fit your diet. But now that I have none of those conveniences, I rent my own apartment, and I have a space with an actual oven, I decide to finally try baking for real. I've been complimented for my cooking but baking felt intimidating to me. I expected to make a lot of mistakes.

Pan de Siosa

This was the first thing I made. It's a pull-apart bread that originally looks nothing like the one I made. The first problem is that I didn't have a mould. When they bake, they are supposed to squeeze together and rise up a bit more but since I just placed them in the tray, they just expanded sideways. Still, it smelled and tasted just like what I have from my memory. It's less fluffy but still tasted nice. While making this, I also learned how to make Russian buttercream - a mix of butter, vanilla, salt, and condensed milk.

Silvanas

The second thing I made is silvanas. It's a cookie made of two meringue cashew cookies pressed together with a buttercream in the middle that is then covered with a bit more buttercream so more crushed cashews and biscuits can stick to the surface. I didn't have cream of tartar so it was hard to reach the required batter consistency. I also didn't follow the directions of having it reach "stiff peaks" before adding more sugar so I ended up with a very liquid batter. I decided to save it by using muffin pans so it could keep the round shape.

While making silvanas, I also learned how to make sabayon buttercream which is made by mixing pasteurised egg yolks, sugar, and softened butter. I just whisked the egg yolks in a bowl that's placed over boiling water until the mixture turned almost white then I slowly mixed in the sugar and then the butter until smooth.

Carrot Cake

My boyfriend's sister makes really good carrot cakes. I could eat half the entire cake in one day but when I started eating low carb, I had to eat only a very thin slice of it. I decided to search for low carb recipes online. The carrot cake below is made with almond flour and is very dense. I mixed in some chopped walnuts for extra texture.

While making these, I also learned how to make some cream cheese frosting which is just a mix of softened cream cheese, butter, sweetener, and vanilla extract. I topped it off with some cinnamon.

Burnt Basque Cheesecake

This is my favourite of them all. This time, I actually followed one recipe with just a slight modification. Since I didn't have enough cream cheese, I substituted some of it with my home made Greek yogurt. It still turned out pretty well. I have since made this cheesecake thrice and I honestly preferred the ones with the Greek yogurt. The recipe I followed can be found here.

What Else Did I Learn?

• There's a ton of sugar in baked goods. You might say, 'Duh?' I've seen baking recipes before so I know how much sugar goes into baked goods but it's a different kind of "knowing" when you bake it yourself and have to measure the amount of sugar for a single recipe. It takes so much just to get a tiny bit of sweetness. It makes me wonder how much more of that you need for really sweet desserts.
• Making your own sweets is easy and somewhat relaxing. In the past month, I never bought snacks aside from nuts and fruits. Now that I kinda know how to bake, I try to limit my baking to once a week and just make a batch that's good for a week. It's a nice break from working in front of the computer.