My Sunshine baking obsession

I love how the internet makes us realize that we are not alone with what we might think are strange interests (ok - that is too mild a word..."obsessions" is the right one).

This all started for me when a book about teenage vampires was published. I did not get past the first few chapters and while reading the one star reviews on Amazon, I discovered that I was not alone. In one review someone mentioned the book "Sunshine" by Robin McKinley as being vastly superior. It was. And that is how my obsession began.

In Sunshine, the main character Rae/Sunshine is a baker in a coffee shop. I have been obsessed with baking since I was old enough to be unsupervised in the kitchen. I go through yearly phases when I am determined to, for example, bake the "ultimate" peanut butter cookie (I will try several recipes but give up since I'm never satisfied. The freezer will be full though and my family is happy to eat up the rejects). Since I moved from the States to Sweden 20 plus years ago, my baking attempts are always a challenge since the flour, etc. is slightly different and of course measurements are not the same. I could write an entire blog on my attempts of finding the perfect recipe of whatever, but this is about Sunshine.

When I read Sunshine the first time (I read it yearly - especially when I'm feeling down) I was overwhelmed by the sort of stream-of-consciousness narration, so I gave up half way. For some reason, I gave it a second chance, and that was when I got hooked. A few years after I discovered it, I wrote down all the names of the baked goods she describes, and thought it would be fun to try to bake a few. Then I found Robin McKinley's blog, and a section called "Playing with your food", as well as her forum for cooking with a section about Sunshine and I discovered that there are many of us who have thought the same things, have written lists of Sunshine's baked goodies, etc. These are my people!

http://www.robinmckinleysblog.com/recipes/


http://robinmckinleysblog.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=2580&start=0&

I have been feeling really stressed lately and couldn't find a good book, so it was time to re-read Sunshine. But this time, I had to start my baking experiment.

Here goes...