Every weekend, the second floor apartment at a complex in West Marredpally tunes to a B-mode. One of its residents Pallavi, who works in IBM is set to login with her project for the day. She picks up a small rectangular basin, vanilla essence, margarine butter, a bowl of sugar and eggs. On to her left are basic baking tools and white chocolate, chocolate, maida and yeast are also placed on the table. “It’s time to make sugar-dusted dough nuts, curry puffs, pudding and some warm cookies,” she exults. For the next two hours, Pallavi whips magic with her baking while wiping sweat from her brow. As the whiff of freshly-made cookies fill the air, Pallavi lets out a sigh, she’s relaxed and rejuvenated to take up her work schedule. “Baking is a stress buster. All our stress melts as we bake in cream and butter,” she exclaims.
“I feel there is nothing that baking can’t fix. I first started baking as hobby, and then learnt it the professional way. Now, it has become a part of me.” With a number of baking sessions and workshops taking place in the city, there has been a spurt in young professionals taking to baking to unwind. These amateur bakers and foodies, not just hone their baking skills but also equip themselves with more knowledge about the food.
Baking is a self-rewarding experience, feels French woman Amandine Agarwal, whose USP is her home-made bakes.
“Baking is a down-to-earth activity with simple ingredients. Sometimes, in everyday work, fruits of the effort put in are not seen but in baking one can see a colourful end product. One bakes from a scratch and it’s a feel good factor,” she says.
Baking is also one of the ways to bond as eager young individuals meet and make new friends. If some baking workshops teach one about basic baking, there are some speciality cooking classes which also educate them about different ingredients and techniques. At R.B. Sudha’s sessions, it is a riot of colours and flavours where participants learn from simple to exotic items. “Unlike cooking where sometimes, the food can be over cooked or under cooked, baking is a simple procedure and can be done in a set time,” says R.B. Sudha.
She has been holding classes for 15 years and her ‘students’ have included both men and women. “I feel baking is kindling one’s maternal instincts. When you find something growing in front of you and gives out such nice aroma, it feels good. I remember my first student, a sailor who did not know even how to boil water learnt baking for his wife. He later told me how he impressed her with his marble cake and cup cakes,” she says with pride.
At a recent baking workshop at Broadridge Financial Solutions, associates unleashed their creativity. The employees were taught to bake and design cupcakes which were judged on the basis of their design and baking technique.
If Aruna Thapa can’t wait to share her excitement of making a chocolate cup cake with various toppings, her colleague Akshay Saxena talks of experiencing nirvana with his blueberry cup cake. “When your family and friends appreciate your melt-in-mouth cup cakes, you feel proud,” he says.
With frustrating traffic and spending gruelling hours at work, baking has become an eagerly-awaited activity on weekends. It’s not just about baking as one can catch up with family and friends and share laughter over some baking goodies.
On a parting note, Pallavi draws up similarities between baking and life. “I feel baking is close to our life. Just as it is a process made up of different ingredients, in life too we have so many people. In baking, the whole process looks messy but the finished output is tasty and colourful. In life, we go through different phases – good and bad and after all the grind, we understand what it is at end of the day. We have maturity to appreciate life and feel satisfied that we have achieved. Nothing comes easily in life or baking.”
