Well, finally decided to bite the bullet and bake a ‘test’ batch of cupcakes in the Sengkang microwave oven today.

To be honest, I was kinda expecting the results to suck—not because of the recipe or anything, but because of the oven. I’d never baked anything in this oven before, and well, the manual’s instructions for baking/cooking using the convection settings did not seem like much consideration had gone in where culinary excellence was concerned…

In the first place, there was no ‘bake’ setting—not really, anyway. The only way you can ‘bake’ something in this microwave is using the preset ‘Programmes’: A1, A2, A3 etc under “BAKE”. Other than that, you just choose “COOK”, and the temperature at which you want to COOK.

So, yes, I was nervous.

In any case, I hadn’t really planned to bake today. I’d actually planned to do it sometime last week (before my teeth extraction), and I’d even bought all the makings for blueberry muffins. But, well, I just kept putting it off cos I didn’t want to end up with a batch of anaemic, ’steamed-y’ muffins. Plus, of course, I’ve been getting home after 8.30 the past few days, and 9pm is too late to start baking, even for me.

But then, today, after we finished work earlier than usual, I went to Compasspoint to buy veg for MJ (insert ‘I love my baby!”), and what did I see but Ghiradelli 60% Semisweet Baking Chocolate Chips! Compounded with the fact that I came across this recipe just yesterday, this surely had to be a divine sign that the time had come for me to bake in with an oven I had not used before.

I have to admit, today was, quite possibly, one of the most nerve-wracking baking experiences I’ve had in awhile—I’ve gotten so used to my measuring cups and spoons and everything that I bake with in my other house that without them, I feel like I’m winging it—even though I usually kinda wing measurements anyway, even with ‘instruments’. heh. Plus, when I took them out of the muffin pan, they were so heavy. As in, not, “this chocolate cake is so rich that any more than three bites is heavy” (ok, the sentence sucks, but cut me some slack, I’ve been Chinese-ing for the past few days!) kind of heavy, but like…”a sack of rice is heavier than a sack of feathers” heavy. Which reallly made me nervous, cos I was afraid the microwaves had overcooked the inside or something

However, I have to say that the muffins turned out quite surprisingly well.

They had that lovely crispycrunchy outside that I’d been worried about, soft insides, and lovely melty chocolate bits and delicately crisp slivered almonds all over.  At least, that was the way they were when they were fresh—yes, I ate breakfast for dinner. :) (Incidentally, though, they are quite heavy— very filling.)

All that remains now is to wait and see how they taste tomorrow—I really hope they don’t become hockey-pucks overnight.

Next up: cookies.

Watch this space.