A few words before it starts

At first I'd like to apologize for my English as it is my foreign language and I am still in the process of learning. Okay, that would be done and now something about me :)

Who Am I?
As the profile says I'm a girl, in fact I'm 18-year-old 22-year-old girl from the Czech Republic. I live in a flat, go to school, hang out with my friends and so on. All the stuff a usual girl does. But sometimes I really do love to bake. Bake - not to cook. I find cooking too difficult (y'know, how many spices shall I use, how long shall I roast the beef etc.) and it usually ends up as a disaster when it's in my hands. But baking, oh yeah, that's quite easy and you cannot mess it up too much, right?!

How Did I Start?
It started when I was 14 or 15 and since then I've made lotta mistakes and lotta good things and learned a lot. In fact, I don't even remember the reason I started this whole baking thing. When I was a child my mom asked me to help her in the kitchen all the time. However, the only help she ever got from me was me licking the spoons and bowls :D My answer was like "Mom, I'm into technique and IT stuff so you won't see me cooking like ever." And you know what they say - never say never - which means now I'm in the kitchen almost everyday baking something. So when I was 14/15 I started baking 'cause something inside of me changed (probably I realised I'm neither into technique nor IT stuff - thanks to math, physics and chemistry) and my interest in baking grew up. I cut out recipes from magazines, made them and ate them :D I totally have a sweet tooth (and so does my daddy) and I love sweets in any form (but I cannot resist to lasagne, pizza, our special kind of sausages - špekáčky). That's the reason why you can only find recipes for sweet pies, cakes, muffins and buns here (although it can happen that one time you'll discover some savoury ones, too).

Who Taught Me?
There is a simple answer for this question. Nobody. Of course I asked my mom about some stuff and she advised me once or twice but most of all I learned things and methods by reading and well, by baking itself. First I tried the simplest things - literally. The very first thing I made (and I'm really ashamed to admit it) was whipped cream spray with an instant juice powder - it created a sweet "fruity" chemical mass which was (to my surprise) edible :D And then there were more and more complicated things and I hope I won't stop improving. I like experimenting and making new recipes and to be honest I do not like (not so much) going back to the old family ones (nevertheless, sometimes I just need to have it so I make it for myself). Yes, it's true that my experiments sometimes end up as a disaster, but most of the time they're pretty tasty. I usually look for recipes on the Internet just for inspiration and then I let my brain do its work to create something new. However, when I want to make something traditional from a certain country, I go through books and search the net to find the most traditional recipe of that dish so I can find out the real and true taste of that dish. After I make it and eat it, I try to experiment with its flavours and so on. I share most of my results here with you.

Why Did I Start The Blog?
People start blogging for different reasons - to share their opinions, feelings etc. Here (fortunately) you won't find anything like that :D On the other hand you will find here my recipes or from-the-others recipes (in this case there's always a link to the original source) I've tested/tried. I think I can say my blog belongs to the group of foodblogs. I just couldn't help it, I felt the need to share my recipes, get some inspiration and maybe make someone happy. Because that's what it's all about, right?! I don't bake to show what I can do, how good I am etc., I bake to make other people happy, to cheer them up when they're sad. And the biggest reward for me is the look in their face that shows how happy and comfortable they feel. The eyes saying "I like it, it's so tasty!" and full of satisfaction. I could not ask for more :)

I think you know all you'd possibly want to know and maybe even more than that and now you're bored :) But if there's some thing/something you'd like to know as I didn't mention it above, feel free to ask in the comment section or email me: catalina.bakes@gmail.com.

Happy baking!