This blog is under reconstruction. Will open up real soon.
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
For the Love of Baking...
I guess I've always loved baking. But honestly, it was the whole romantic idea of baking that first got me hooked. You know, that idea that if you know how to bake, your life will be picture-perfect. Just like the life of that woman you often see in pictures from the 50s? She's in her pastel dress with a pretty ruffled-edges apron stached clean and white, wrapped around her tiny waist. She can whip up cake after delicious cake cake effortlessly for dear husband and two kids, who by the way, remain slim even after eating cake every day. She slaves in the kitchen all day but does it all without a drop of sweat in sight or a strand of hair out of place. She stands in her spotless kitchen holding a beautifully decorated cake smiling. She is all dolled-up ready to bake another cake.
In actual fact, I don't even come close to looking like that after a day in the hot kitchen. You'll see me with splotches of batter down the front of my shirt and traces of flour on my cheeks. I will not remember how or when I get them but I will have food dye stain on my fingers and burn marks on my arms from careless handling of the oven.
Though initally I was tricked into baking by the technicolour picture of that woman and her family, I end up loving it. Probably because I find it comforting. The simplest act of breaking the eggs into the bowl, or beating butter until light and fluffy or eagerly watching the cake rise or crust turn golden brown from the oven window, gives me instant satisfaction. Most of all, I just love the smell of it. I think it's that sweet, delicious aroma that wafts from the oven that makes a house a home.
I first started baking when I was 15, when I helped Mak bake cookies for Raya. We made tat nenas gulung, biskut kelapa, chocolate square slices, london almond, kuih sarang semut, kuih bangkit, telur labah-labah, biskut mazola just to name a few (why we like to name our kuihs after bugs I have no idea). When she's not making cookies, she bakes hot buttered buns or sometimes mini pizzas for tea. The buns are my favourite.
Eventually, I picked up the basics, some tips and tricks and got to know the oven. I learnt that baking is all about measurements. It's ok if you don't have the proper tools as long as you measure everything with whatever it is you have; Mak used a china tea cup and regular dining spoons for measuring, and when she didn't have a rolling pin, she used a bottle instead. Mak taught me that when you beat, you have to come from one direction only so you get enough air in. I also learnt that you can't really trust the book but have to rely on your instinct especially when it comes to controlling the temperature and timing. And from here I understood that having a good, reliable oven is indispensable and today, I simply cannot imagine living in a house without one.
Over the years, as life and a hectic work schedule gets in the way, I found less and less time to do any baking and it was shelved away with the other things I once enjoyed doing. From time to time I still manage to pick up a new recipe for pie or cake, or some baking tips but I was not baking as much as I wanted to.
Many, many years later, tired and weary from working 9-6 at an ad agency, I find myself thinking about all the fun I used to have with Mak conjuring up all the yummy things from the oven and it hits me how much I missed it.
So, one weekend in late November last year, armed with an old beat-up hand-mixer from MIL and a new oven, I rekindled my love affair. I guess I must have missed it a lot because I ended up baking 2 vanilla loaf cakes, a couple of angel cakes, and two batches of cupcakes: lemon cupcakes with sugar-frosted lemon slices for toppings; and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.
My husband of course, was speechless but he gave me an idea. He knew I just about had enough working in the advertising line, so why not find something else I enjoy doing that I can do from home while still keep my job? Since I like to bake, why not start with that?
And so, that's how RS Bakeshop started and how this blog came to be. With new found courage and the hopes that others will enjoy my cakes as much as I enjoy baking them, I brace myself to face whatever the future in baking may bring.
In actual fact, I don't even come close to looking like that after a day in the hot kitchen. You'll see me with splotches of batter down the front of my shirt and traces of flour on my cheeks. I will not remember how or when I get them but I will have food dye stain on my fingers and burn marks on my arms from careless handling of the oven.
Though initally I was tricked into baking by the technicolour picture of that woman and her family, I end up loving it. Probably because I find it comforting. The simplest act of breaking the eggs into the bowl, or beating butter until light and fluffy or eagerly watching the cake rise or crust turn golden brown from the oven window, gives me instant satisfaction. Most of all, I just love the smell of it. I think it's that sweet, delicious aroma that wafts from the oven that makes a house a home.
I first started baking when I was 15, when I helped Mak bake cookies for Raya. We made tat nenas gulung, biskut kelapa, chocolate square slices, london almond, kuih sarang semut, kuih bangkit, telur labah-labah, biskut mazola just to name a few (why we like to name our kuihs after bugs I have no idea). When she's not making cookies, she bakes hot buttered buns or sometimes mini pizzas for tea. The buns are my favourite.
Eventually, I picked up the basics, some tips and tricks and got to know the oven. I learnt that baking is all about measurements. It's ok if you don't have the proper tools as long as you measure everything with whatever it is you have; Mak used a china tea cup and regular dining spoons for measuring, and when she didn't have a rolling pin, she used a bottle instead. Mak taught me that when you beat, you have to come from one direction only so you get enough air in. I also learnt that you can't really trust the book but have to rely on your instinct especially when it comes to controlling the temperature and timing. And from here I understood that having a good, reliable oven is indispensable and today, I simply cannot imagine living in a house without one.
Over the years, as life and a hectic work schedule gets in the way, I found less and less time to do any baking and it was shelved away with the other things I once enjoyed doing. From time to time I still manage to pick up a new recipe for pie or cake, or some baking tips but I was not baking as much as I wanted to.
Many, many years later, tired and weary from working 9-6 at an ad agency, I find myself thinking about all the fun I used to have with Mak conjuring up all the yummy things from the oven and it hits me how much I missed it.
So, one weekend in late November last year, armed with an old beat-up hand-mixer from MIL and a new oven, I rekindled my love affair. I guess I must have missed it a lot because I ended up baking 2 vanilla loaf cakes, a couple of angel cakes, and two batches of cupcakes: lemon cupcakes with sugar-frosted lemon slices for toppings; and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.
My husband of course, was speechless but he gave me an idea. He knew I just about had enough working in the advertising line, so why not find something else I enjoy doing that I can do from home while still keep my job? Since I like to bake, why not start with that?
And so, that's how RS Bakeshop started and how this blog came to be. With new found courage and the hopes that others will enjoy my cakes as much as I enjoy baking them, I brace myself to face whatever the future in baking may bring.
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