The Romance Of Baking

This post, and those that will follow , are dedicated to all those young ladies who wish to bake that perfect cake, but do not know where or how to begin, and to my two daughters, Ishita and Shreya..
 Ishita,my elder one,  has now grown into a versatile cook , skillfully balancing a career and family and has made her mother proud.
My younger one, Shreya,  has happily eaten her way through all my good and bad cooking, and is largely  responsible for making this blog happen. I hope that one day she will feel inspired enough to try her hand at baking  and carry the legacy forward.

First things first - getting together the starter kit.. We shall buy only what is really essential , improvising and adapting from our kitchen as much as possible. Once you have made your first tryst with baking and feel confident to carry it forward, you can add to your  collection.

Baking dish - an 8 or 9 inch diameter round cake tin is all that you need to get started. Go for one with a heavy bottom to prevent burning. Ovenproof glassware  is also available in the market, as are nonstick tins and more recently, silicon baking dishes. But my vote still goes for the traditional aluminium containers.

Measuring scales - If you are serious about cooking or baking, do invest in one. I do not believe in measures of katoris or cups, as sizes  do vary. Kitchen scales are easily available in stores. Diet scales are available abroad, and if you can  get your hands on one, all the better, as these are more accurate and less bulky.

Oven -An OTG, or an oven- toaster- grill is  the ideal oven. A microwave with a convection mode will also do, but the OTG gives the best results . Most ovens now come with built-in thermostats and timers , but no harm double checking if you are buying a new one.

Metal skewer- Required to check the doneness of the cake. A wooden shashlik  stick, or even a sharp knife will do.

Electric hand beater- It is not really an essential, but it does make cake making a lot simpler. Not to fret, our hands will do just as well.

There are several not so essential items, which you can collect over a period of time - pie tins, muffin tins, tart cases, rubber spatula, pastry brush etc.

Getting started...

Preparing the cake tin - The classic way is called greasing and dusting. Grease the bottom and sides of the tin with butter or cooking oil , add a table- spoonful of flour, and tap the tin, turning it around so that the flour covers all the surfaces. Tap out the excess flour. Alternately, the tin can be lined with butter paper. Cut out a circle of the butter paper  to cover the base, and a long strip to cover the sides. Fit them into the cake tin and grease. Finally, you can use the aluminium foil . The end result, here, will not be a very smooth cake  due to the crinkled foil surface, but I vote this to be the easiest method. Unless otherwise stated, you may use this method to line all your cake tins.

Sugar - We will be using ground sugar in all our recipes. Your kitchen mixer-grinder will do the trick.

Butter - We will be using unsalted white butter in all recipes. Do not begin to substitute with cooking oil or malai until you have become an expert.

Eggs- Bring them out of the fridge in advance so that they are at room temperature.

And finally a confession-  I am not a professional baker. In fact not even a trained one . But all the recipes that will appear in my blogs have been tried and baked zillions of times at home, and I bring to you only the best.  I have collected these recipes from friends, family, and magazines , and a few have been improvised. Hence, I am not making any claims to  originality . If anyone feels that a recipe has been pinched, please accept my apologies, and allow me to move on.

So ladies, get your aprons out and we can begin.