The true story of baking

I have been baking my own bread for while already but to be honest, I can't really call it baking. Bying those all-in mixes, adding some water and kneading a bit, you can't really call it baking. I've been dreaming of making my own sourdough starter for ages though, even tried it once, but it turned out badly. Now that the temperature outside and inside is much suitable for this kind of projects than in the middle of the winter, I will give it another try. I have found a cople of nice websities with instructions of how to make your own starter (here and here) and I have also one in a book, I've leant from the local library another day. They all have a couple of things in common, but still vary from each other. At the moment I am trying to figure out, which method will suite me the most.
I am baking bread every 2 days, so feeding and keeping the starter alive shouldn't be a problem. By the way, I am reading A Bread Alone from S-K Lynch (thanks to Farmgirl Fare blog), which is extra inspiring for trying out the sourdough!
I love to bake simple, basic things and adding unexpected and not-so-traditional ingredients to them. I love experimenting with herbs, flowers and herbal waters. These ingredients can change your basic pastry to something completely new and surprising. You should try it, you won't be disappointed!

Rosemary Cake

For tonight we have a Rose Cake plan. I want to try out my own recipe (actually it's a basic cake recipe; what I want to do is to add some rose jelly and rose water to the dough, and some sugar with rose flowers on top... We will see how it will turn out).

Have a nice day!