Backwahn is not proper German, but the nice thing about the German language is that you can create new words by just connecting nouns š The literal translation of Backwahn is baking mania š (for Germans of a certain age Backwahn reminds of Bhagwan, the Indian mystic/guru movement of the 70ties and 80ties, which was quite popular in Germany. Anyway, thatās another story).

So, baking mania! As so much else in my life this is driven by the strong hunter and gatherer gene in my body, lol. Hunting for and gathering whatever items has been a major form of entertainment for me as long as I can think. The first thing I collected were pictures of dogs. Then pictures, goodies from my various movie and music fan interests. In past years this has diversified into collecting succulents, a short bout of mineral collecting, cocktail ingredients and now itās baking.
There is stuff that never dies like collecting fridge magnets from all the places Iāve traveled to and band T-shirts š

The trouble with collecting is that it eats up space in the apartment and Iāve tried to restrict myself and the number of items I collect as best as I can.
The brilliant thing about baking is that you collect perishable ingredients and they have to go at some point. That is fantastic! Lol. I can serve my need to collect, but it is also going away bit by bit, which is highly welcome. I am honestly glad that I finally found something to collect that doesnāt last and gathers dust! Donāt get me wrong, I still had to buy two additional racks for all the baking goods, hahaha, but now I seem to have reached a kind of equilibrium and it doesnāt look like Iām going to need a third new rack at the moment š I am not the kind of person to say āneverā though, so letās see how far the baking mania will go.

Since I started with the baking mania in earnest only when I bought a relatively decent oven at the beginning of this year, I consider myself to still be in the learning phase and am baking quite ordinary cakes, however, I have put my eyes on FB groups that boast with their cake masterpieces (themed cakes from Cinderella’s castle to ocean floor jelly cakes) already. These cakes are not cakes anymore but edible works of art. Letās see to what extend the cake (and bread) mania will grow š
For the moment I am simply pleased with having found something to collect that doesnāt gather dust. Alas it gathers calories! There’s always a downside, isnāt there, darn! Lol.


