September 10, 2008

Baking Woes

I have always been in lead when in wee hours of cooking in hostel. We used to experiment with lots of things in our room. That too, when we just had few vessels and a heater as our equipments. Usually, this feeling aroused in the middle of exam time. When everyone around us was busy in studying, we would be found begging for all the left over grub. And in the middle of the night our room would smell of delicacies. The luck was me and Richa got the job in the same company. So we were now roommates in gurgaon as well. There as well, I would prefer cooking myself instead of appointing a maid. Many a times, my roomies were lazy when it came to cooking. They would find shopping or roaming o doing something much more interesting. But, I would find time for cooking. And now after marriage, this hobby has gained more opportunities. Andy loves food and I love cooking. So we both complement each other.

He loves all my experiments with food. I had tried almost all cuisines with him, like, Italian, south Indian, etc. Infact I have tried many delicacies which, as per me only Moms have right to cook, like Dal Baati churma, Gatte ki Sabzi etc etc.
The only place where I fall apart is Baking. No matter whatever I try my cakes never turn out to be good. In fact LD is known for baking nice cakes. He also tried to teach me but that day even his cake turned out to be disaster. So now I blame it to my microwave, that it doesn’t know how to bake it.

One of my colleagues got this lovely marble cake when she came from her hometown. As usual I asked her to bake it for me as well. She happily came to my place. Though, I didn’t reveal her of my past with the cakes. I had found a recipe for Apple walnut cake, so she said let’s try first try this and then we will bake marble cake. We prepared the base as per the directions and finally kept it in microwave. She suggested me to keep it in normal microwave for 10 minutes and then on convention. I thought let’s try this as well, may be the microwave now helps me. But lo!!! After 5 minutes I smelt of burning. It was burnt. :(

I had given up all hopes on my stupid microwave. Finally my colleague suggested lets try marble cake and bake as per cook book suggests. Here we were again trying our hands on it. This time we were sure that no matter what happens atleast we will save it from burning so we will keep a watch on it second by second. Finally after 10 minutes, nothing happened to it. So, I did one more experiment with it, by changing some options. Finally after 10 more minutes this was the result:



Its one of the best cakes baked in my microwave :(. And I finally hopefully know which options to select while baking a cake. I would try another cake in this week so as gain expertise in it. Since, I plan to take one for my mom next month.

6 comments:

  1. yeah, baking is not a very friendly thing...i always felt OTG is best for baked stuff than MW...u cna probably try baking in convection mode for 15 min and switch off and give it a standing time for another 10 mins, before taking it out...i once tried it and it was decent. DONT be tempted to take it out without giving the standing time, it wont be done properly

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  2. that looks yummy to the tummy:-)
    send the recipe:-)
    and thanks to those cooking classes i got from you...i have survived the tests of times when i have had to cook on my own:-)
    i miss our mid night"breadpoha" in the hostel..and ppl giving us those astonished looks"why arent u guys studying?..its final exams guys"hehehe..golden days...
    and no matter the microwaves and OTG's now..that little heater and those pouches of masalas n oil will forever be special:-)

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  3. Looks like a caking disaster to me...aajkal ki ladkiyo ko khana banana aate hi kaha hai...;)

    Whenevr I'll plan to come 2 mumbai...i guess I'll again hav to keep myself satisfied by the same Maggi @ IIM Powai...kyon?

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  4. #Jaya: Yeah I guess I am always in such a hurry to taste the cake that I don’t give it time to cool... and thus my cake flattens after an hour :(((
    Next time u coming and teaching me baking... (WWoow is Rhymes)

    #Santa sizing: This cake was delicious in taste. But guess now I need cooking classes from someone to teach me baking.
    Of course how can I forget breadpoha.. Do u remember the Uttapam we made..Man it was awsomee.... No matter how many utensils I have now...But it can never taste the same... It had so much love...
    I misss ittt :(((((((((

    #Akash: Aieyyy... I said I m not good in baking... But other than that I cook very welll.... (Stress on Veryyyyy)
    And its IIT Powai... and its ur choice if u wanna eat that stupid maggi and miss the tasty food.. :)

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  5. Stress on tht verryyyyyyy part only...can u just tell me whats tht "white thing" on the cake in ths pic, it is already eating my nerves out girl...;)))

    Stupid maggi's can b gr8 under such circumstances...:P

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  6. #Akash: Idiot its a marble cak...so its vanilla layer ....
    Sachi ladkon ka kuch nahi ho sakta.. :))

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