I have cooked and baked more in the last few months than in my whole life. To be honest, baking is my lifeline. Not because I love food - I do - but because when I bake, I forget about anything else - good and bad alike. As I discovered the hard way, baking is about perfection. You need a hundred percent concentration or whatever you're preparing is a disaster in the making.

Take today. July 12th. Two days from Bastille Day and the sudden urge to bake something blue, white and red. I choose cream puffs with colored glace royale and set to work. I mean - I must have made choux a million times. And glace royale? So easy you could make it in your sleep. Yeah, sure, you betcha! My first attempt at choux was a disaster. The second time, they were uneven. So many things can go wrong actually, it has to happen once in a while. It did today! I'm totally jinxed! No, I mean, really! 'Cos when I made my glace royale, I was aggravated I had failed at my first recipe. I did not measure my confectioners' sugar properly and ended up with a runny icing. The vanilla pudding was good though and even if the result doesn't look great, I had fun and it does taste delicious. Next time around will be better. No, scratch that - it will be perfect or I'll die trying ;)

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Behold the disaster!