How Writing Every Day Has Enhanced My Baking
Open to view deliciousness
Greetings everyone and welcome back! :)
Today is the 1st year anniversary of my online writing! It started as sageelephant.org and morphed into Angeli’s Newsletter when I switched to Substack in October 2022.
What I’ve noticed since I started writing was how much I love baking. Today we’ll talk about that baking progression.
The beginning of blogging started Feb 2022. Around the same time, learned how to make my own sourdough starter. Admittedly, winter is a terrible time to learn how to make sourdough starter (lol). Because the cold temperature slows the rise time of the starter and the proofing of breads.
Nevertheless, learning how to bake sourdough bread and its counterparts has become one of the most rewarding endeavors ever.
As you can see, my first loaves were pretty burned on the top. While that didn’t affect the taste too much, I learned that my oven actually is probably hotter than the 500 degrees stated on the thermostat, and realized I had to shorten my baking times in comparison with the recipe.
With practice though, my loaves started to turn out browned and perfect :) I swear though, my best loaves are when visitors come to town (shout out to the loaves from when Sam, Janahan, and Wei visited!)
Sourdough starter offers a lot of options from the “discard” - the leftover starter after you newly feed part of your batch with flour and water. From the discard, I learned to make biscuits, pancakes, and scones. The biscuits were the most highlightable.
I also learned to make sourdough english muffins You can see below the progression of english muffins from slightly burned to light brown.
Then I started reading The Artist’s Way (summer of 2022). In the Artist’s Way, author Julia Cameron suggests a practice called Morning Pages. 3 pages of stream of consciousness (journaling) every day. It’s supposed to help you get your junk thoughts out for the day, so you can tune into your own intuition.
I started trying yeasted breads at this point. I moved onto hot cross buns (I spent part of my childhood in the UK - I was also born there - and due to my Sri Lankan upbringing)- any desserts with raisins is a HELL YES for me.
Then I decided to mimic the cardamom buns I had tried when I visited Portugal in 2021. These were really tasty and satisfied a long time craving.
Then, I decided to try and make a roasted garlic and rosemary sourdough loaf when Wei (my BFF) visited. We made grilled cheese sandwiches with it, served with tomato soup :)
My parents came to visit for Christmas, and I learned how to make a Sri Lankan raisin bread from my mom’s childhood called banis. These turned out to be milky, soft, buttery, and delicious. She was delighted.
My Takeaway
For me, writing has been a true expression of my soul. And baking ended up being its lovely counterpart. I feel Spirit (the energy of creativity) works through all of us in unique ways. For me, learning to express my creative energy through writing opened up a world of delicious baked goods.
Baking, like writing, has become an absolute joy for me, something I love to share, and a true expression of myself.
And creativity begets more creativity. The more we can open ourselves to receive new ideas in alignment with our being, the more we get to express the truth of who we really are.
Really creative and joyful artists.
I hope you enjoyed this post! I’d love to hear how this made you feel! I read and respond to every comment :)
It’s been an awesome first year of writing online. And the BIGGEST THANK YOU to all the readers who have been with me since day 1, those who have joined me since, and those who continue to join me on this beautiful path of spiritual growth. This wouldn’t be possible without you. I hope you are finding this content valuable! :) Being on a spiritual path is no easy feat, and I’m honored you’ve decided to spend your time growing with me here :)
Sending so much love,
Angeli
“When we move toward our own creativity, we move toward our Creator. When we seek to become more spiritual, we find ourselves becoming more creative. Our creativity and our spirituality are so closely interconnected they are in effect one and the same thing.” ~Julia Cameron
ANNOUNCEMENT!!
I am giving my FIRST ever in-person workshop at Make Nashville in East Nashville! This 2-part workshop is called Manifest Your Dream Reality: A Workshop on the Law of Attraction and will be broken down into sections (love & relationships, health, and money & career) to help you attract the life of your dreams! DATES: March 10th 6-8pm and March 11th 12:30-4pm - will include the link after it’s posted :) Please keep an eye out for updates in future emails!
I will love to see you all there!!! This is going to be a great workshop!!! It is my ultimate joy to see you prosper :) Thanks everyone for loving and trusting me to guide you through your own spiritual growth path! ~Angeli
Still wanna learn how to manifest your dream life, but can’t make the workshop? Here’s my e-book to help you: Create Your Own Beautiful Story: Learn to Manifest the Life of Your Dreams
Congratulations on your first year! I love the intersection between your writing practice and your baking! And mmmmm to your baking photos!