Autumn Break + the Last Bake!

This past week, during my autumn break (sometimes teaching schedules are the best), I finally made it to a country I’ve been itching to see for ages: Slovenia!

I suspected Slovenia would be amazing and I was RIGHT.

E and I spent seven days hiking in the fall leaves, boating on Lake Bled, tasting wine with locals, finding unique castles, driving and exploring to our heart’s content.

It was the best way to end my favorite month. I can’t wait to share more about every destination!

Another thing that has ended recently is the Bake Off Bake Along with Amanda and Ala.

The last few weeks, between work and travel, I haven’t been able to participate as much as I hoped–but I knew I had to rally and make the final bake!

I went for the technical challenge, which is the very-British Victoria sandwich sponge cake, that I’d never heard of until the Bake Off itself.

I went for a marbled version and I was quite impressed with how it turned out, flavor-wise, even though I failed at the “sandwich” part and over baked it.

Also we only had four raspberries left, so my decorations weren’t quite up to par (and no, I don’t know how we ended up with just four, so random!).

It’s fun to look back at all of my other bakes: like my first cake, my fabulous bread, my terrible pastries, and this incredible cake that might be the best thing I’ve ever made. I’ve learned more than I expected–especially when I think back to that first cake! Rather than being put off baking for the rest of my life as I feared might be an outcome of this challenge, I’m looking forward to getting back into the kitchen and making my favorite thing–bread!