Let Them Eat Cake!

When was the last time you decided to bake a cake? Or let me rephrase this - when was the last time you even baked to perfection? Wait a minute!! Does baking to perfection even exist? For a majority crowd out there, baking is just a dream that is far away from even making it come true. Indians can cook up a storm in their kitchen - can cook Mexican, Italian, and even Indianized version of Thai in their kitchen nowadays. But baking a cake will still be a no-no. They’d rather buy than bake. Money can buy everything, but not the satisfaction one could get after baking a nice coffee cake.

There is a set notion about baking that has been fed to us since forever. Some of them are - An oven is necessary, a particular set of kitchenware is needed, you need all ingredients for it, eggs are important, a particular technique to fold the batter and much more. It kind of creates stress in one’s mind, and under the fear of baking failure, one does not even attempt at times. And the people who have tried, have had myriad experiences. Sometimes the cake does not rise, or falls flat, or burns.

I am no alien to baking. I also have had my own share of failures. I remember the first time I tried to bake a chocolate cake in a cooker (because I don't have an oven), it burned so bad that it came out as a hard piece of rock. My father, being a father, went around the house, flinging the burnt base like a Frisbee. What a shame! But then he did not discourage me to stop baking. A lot of people put a stop to their baking passion majorly because they are discouraged by their family and friends and are made a joke of the family.

There is no woman out there who has not tried to bake ever once in her life. Be it from the ready mixes available in the market, to the biscuit cakes (which in reality is just eating biscuits only), we have left no stone turned. Labeling baking as an art that can be mastered only by few is a thing of the past. With the Indianification of baking in recent times, a lot of bakery classes - professional and home-based workshops are taking the place of an institution and promises to make baking magicians in every household. Sadly, it is not what it is preaches. Until there is a constant practice, multiple failures, shed in all your blood and sweat into this, one can never be able to bake ever. Not that it is difficult, but it requires all the love, dedication and all of your heart poured while baking.

In the last 3-4 years, there has been a burst of home bakers in India. Every 6th woman is a home baker and bakes cakes around her circle and is trying to make sure she is the best in the business. With such as a current scenario, the competition among-st them has increased and how. There is more supply than the current demand in the market. And there are no less patisserie shops in the country anymore! People have been going abroad to study baking at the finest of the pastry schools in the world, and coming back to their own country and minting money and how!

A long time back, when any occasion was to be celebrated in the house, there used to be ranges of our own delightful Jalebis, Gulab Jamuns, Kaju Katri, our all time favourite Motichur Laddoos and what not! Times have changed. We have moved on the macarons, customized cupcakes and cake popsicles ! Our cakes have names too - red velvet cake, white decadence, Swiss dark chocolate cake and more. I wish there was actually some Swiss-ness to the cakes they serve.

Nonetheless, it is never too late to bake. Could just take one go to make the best and could even take forever. And if somebody tells you that this is not your cup of tea, then let them eat cake ;)