I'd love to think of myself as someone who can prepare scrumptious, piping hot meals at any time and any place. I would, especially, love to be able to bake yummy cookies and delicious cakes, u know, the kind that u can bring to crowds and offer to friends while impressing people with ur skill, and uh... u know... maybe even work into the heart of my boyfriend or potential Mr Right (ok, that is if I have one in the 1st place =P).

Most of the time, however, it's that sheer thrill of making something of ur own. In fact, I love watching cooking programmes, seeing how a combination of the same ingredients can turn into a delightful treat to the palate.

Haha... But well, reality points otherwise.

Been trying to bake cookies but they always dun turn out as I wanted them to be. I mean, they taste ok, as in chocolate chip cookies tasting like chocolate chip cookies and butter cookies tasting like butter cookies. But somehow, that crumbly texture still eludes me and look of my cookies is just different from those in the recipe books. I tried suggestions from the masters in baking whom I know, from reducing the butter to adding less or more eggs to the amount of flour, but they still turned out like the cheap biscuits u'd get from your neighbourhood Mamak stall.

Just last week I bought this chocolate chip cookie mix where all the ingredients have already been prepared for u in this bpacket and all u had to do was to add butter and an egg. I thought, "hey, what could go wrong, right?".

Well, tried it out yesterday and they turned out the same as my previous tries. Taste is there, pretty fragrant, in fact, but it doesn't have that 'Mrs Field's-cookies'-look, or the 'Famous Amous' kinda texture. Totally different from that huge delectable cookie that was pictured on the packaging of that cookie mix.

So guys, does anyone of u have any secrets to successful baking? U know, maybe certain secrets that not only make cookies taste good but in terms of appearance and texture?

Or else I'll just blame it on the oven =P.