A dozen hands work tirelessly to knead the dough. Once it’s ready, the papers and pens are out to note down the next set of orders. And then they are at it again - chopping tomatoes and capsicums for the pizza toppings. The enthusiastic group of youngsters is the new batch of Sirisha Challa’s baking classes.
“Everyone wants to learn the techniques to bake,” says Sirisha as she rushes into her kitchen unit to fetch a the packet of cheddar cheese. It’s not just cakes or pizzas; there are tarts, cup cakes and a mind-boggling range of creative toppings. !
Once a traditional annual birthday treat, cakes and cookies these days have gone through a transformation and are finding a place in college outings and office parties.
Spotting this growing trend, many small joints and home-based bakers have sprung up in the city. Cashing in on this craze, 27-year-old Sirisha, who started her modest bakery unit called ‘Bake My Wish’ a few months ago, is conducting baking classes at her bakery this summer. What makes the bakery unit of the 27-year-old different than the rest in the city is its homely ambience. Tucked away in a quiet corner of the city at Lawson’s Bay Colony, ‘Bake My Wish’, with its homely ambience, is a small dream of the young girl and her parents. Here, you can sip your coffee or enjoy a blueberry milkshake in complete solitude under the shade of the tall trees surrounding it.
At her beginner’s bakery classes, one you can learn marble pound cake, chocolate chip cookies, lemon and chocolate tarts, fudgy brownie and caramel brownie, pizzas and vanilla and blueberry cup cakes. “It’s the first time that I am learning to bake and I never thought it can be so much fun. The best part is to take your own creation home and get everyone to taste it. It’s like one big party,” says Sridhar Pusuluri, one of the batch members at Sirisha’s class.
Her beginner’s class is of three day’s duration. “Baking is a lot more fun and that’s what attracts a lot of youngsters to it. There’s amazing creativity and talent in personalised cake-making,” she says. Designs range from capturing the joy of the arrival of a baby at home by creating tiny toes as cup cake toppings or a teenager’s heartbreak with a band-aid on a heart and several fun kinds of toppings. Her own products are the “simple and tasty kinds,” she explains. All she needs to know is the theme of the event and her creativity gets going. This season, ‘Bake My Wish’ has introduced a new menu which includes pastas, lasagne and rice bowl. The Arabbiatta pasta and chicken and tarragon in white sauce did not disappoint us. But her signature dish will be ‘Fried Chicken’, she says. “I want it to be very different from all the top brands in the city. This menu has been tried and tested over the past three months and now I am finally satisfied with it,” Sirisha adds. Milkshakes and summer coolers like ‘Virgin Mojita’ are the latest additions in the menu of ‘Bake My Wish’ this season.
