Meet the bakers - Part 6

I was sailing on a small fluffy cupcake, floating high in the air, looking around the clouds, dreaming... mmmm..  That's what Rivka's email did to me - by far the best compliment I have ever received for the Meet the Baker series - quoting her verbatim - "Yes, I’ve seen and read all your blog posts and have been anxiously waiting for this mail from you! "

Meet Little miss muffet... er.. sorry Lil' Miss Kitchen's Rivka Maria Shahani, owner, baker, delivery girl, dishwasher and everything else that you can think of.

For someone who has been dabbling in various forms of arts - music, an MA in Fine Arts, logo design, photography, baking is a piece of cake (er.. ! does that make sense? :-) ) Rivka now sings with her church choir.

Excerpts:


D: Do you make your own pasta from scratch? Or are they store bought? If so, where do you source your ingredients from?
RMS: For my lasagna, I make my own pasta sheets, as the taste is unbeatable. But for my pasta bakes, since it’s not really viable to make penne/fusilli/smaller pasta shapes, I use store bought pasta. I source all my ingredients locally, supporting the small shop owners in Kilpauk. They have surprised me with their products like you’d never imagine!


D: Do you customize based on individual tastes?
RMS: Yes, 99% of the time.. I cook what I love to eat and it’s only fair that I feed people what they love to eat, but there is a limit as to how far I will go.. I never compromise on my basic recipes.


D: Your thoughts on the Bake Fest?
RMS: It’s a superb plan... I think KP Balakumar and Nanditha have been quite fantastic in bringing all of us together... It’s going to be extremely beneficial to us bakers, as we’re reaching out to an audience that we might not have had a chance to encounter, if it wasn’t for this. And it’s healthy to stand side by side with others who might be considered “competition” and be supportive of them and they of you... it’s going to be quite a show!


D: Your theme for this fest?
RMS: As you might’ve noticed on my page, my philosophy with my Kitchen is “Good food, made with love.” and that’s all it is. I like to keep things simple, I love my food and I want to share it.



D: Would you like to open a store sometime?
RMS: I’d love to... that is the eventual plan... for now I’m very content with working from home… since I have no professional training and since I do it all on my own, I’m growing with the Kitchen… it’s a good process for me, I’m taking my time and I think that’s the way to go… there’s no rush.

Signs off Rivka, Food is what occupies my days now… it’s extremely satisfying when you hear that a 2 year old squealed with delight and gobbled up her birthday cake that you’ve put a load of love into... it’s no longer about the time or effort it takes... it’s all about the love.

And someday, somewhere, I will have a space for likeminded people to come and share in these 3 loves of my life… and it will be beautiful.

Thank  you Rivka and I so look forward to meeting you on 30th. Love, Hugs, xx. 

Meet the bakers - Part 5

First off, this post is long overdue. Work was all consuming and then a couple of Showcase meets happened :)

So I was writing to each of these bakeraanis and this time, I picked the enthu cutlet - Suma Satish. That's how I am going to call her, because her email to me was bubbling with excitement and thrill and I couldn't resist responding immediately. There weren't many details on her FB page, so I had to throw random questions at her. And then, after reading her email I realized, even if I didn't ask her any question, I would have still ended up with reams of information ! :D That's Suma for you - a bundle of excitement of a little kid.

Suma is absolutely talented; she calls herself jack of all trades, king of none (shouldn't it be queen? :P) but I think it's amazing that she can knit, paint, crochet, and apparently play a bit of flute (but stopped because the neighbor complained ! :P). As I was wondering who is she going to knit for in Chennai, her next line sent me into peals of laughter - she could perhaps knit bikinis in Chennai :P

Excerpts:

D: What got you into baking? Is this full time or do you work elsewhere?
SS: My mom used to bake when my sis and I were little. She made cookies and cakes for our birthdays. She used to break the eggs with a butter knife (we are vegetarians) resulting in shells all over the batter and 30 mins to pick the shells off LOL! So I kinda knew what went into making a cake and how it was done, but my experiments with baking started when I got married and moved to the US- no work, no friends, a humongous oven, an easy access to raw materials and some super awesome baking websites/books made my baking life simpler  And the biggest plus point was that my mom was not around so if one cake flopped I could *cough* chuck it and without her glaring at me  I took some Wilton cake decorating classes etc and since I lived in Maryland I could not operate out of a home kitchen (they have some mental law) so I used to chumma timepass bake and decorate cakes and send it free to Jay's office. We just moved back to India last month and my full time job is running after my 2yr old. (Note to self: Ask SS later about mental law? :P haha )


D: Where do you source your ingredients? and do you think you find all you need in Chennai / India? If not, what do you think that's missing and can stores like Gormei can source it for us?
SS: I have just been to Currimbhoys, Poppat Jamals ad Nuts and spices. Thanks to the Bakers Guild I have gathered a LOT of information about other stores. What I really (and I think most Home bakers would agree) is have a store like the ones in US- where they carry everything related to baking from icing sugar to colours, to cake boxes to fondant/gum paste/modeling chocolates. It would make our life so much easier. But I think Passionate Baking is doing something along those lines. I am really pleased to know that there are stores like Gormei that carry exotic stuff, I can't wait to raid their store :-P


D: What's your theme for the fest?
SS: Theme for the fest hmm... I will be keeping it real simple (no frosting or anything fancy) because I have a toddler (who loves running around the house throwing spoons and bowls from the balcony and stuffing his toys into the fridge sigh) it is challenging to make complicated things  But what I'll bring shall remain a secret (only because I'm yet to try out those recipes LOL).  (haha, girl - can't really wait to see what you are going to bring and I do hope your little one is tagging along with you !  Please do bring him:) )

D: Future plans?
SS:  Oh yeah, I plan to teach baking. I mean why buy cakes when you can bake right? Home Bakers don't shoot me  But 1st I need to figure out how to contact Jayalalitha and tell her to put an end to these damned power cuts  It will take some time for me to set it up (because I plan to teach in my house, only weekends) but I can assure you it will not be the run of mill baking classes, it will be fun because hey you are making cake- what is there to be serious about?!? (Absolutely, and let me know when you talk to JJ ;-) I will put gosham for you - SS vaazhga types :P)

She so wanted me to use this picture, so here you go ! BTW, this multi talented pretty lady also blogs at http://masalavade.blogspot.in/. And I was doubling in laughter at the uterus post ! Seriously screw loose ! :P 

Meet the bakers - Part 4

In today's special, we'll be meeting another interesting bakeraani - Sangeetha Potty of Lil' Delights fame. She is very responsive (as were all the other bakers), that is making my life a lot easier in interviewing these pretty ladies.

Sangeetha has represented the state and country in Badminton, and now satisfies her craving by attending live events for tennis or cricket. She has recently started running, and did a 10km marathon in Chennai. She hopes to do a half marathon this year - Go girl ! (What a way to burn off those calories ! )

What I really loved about Sangeetha's goodies are the names she has given to some of her creations - Match made in heaven, Southern belle, Blue Eyed Beauty (reminds of me some ranch in Texas with all hot cow boys - *drool drool*). The customized cup cakes are to watch for. Choose your cake, choose your topping and icing and lick away to glory !

Excerpts:

D: I read that you source your ingredients from around the world. Could you elaborate please?
SP: I do source most of my ingredients from around the world. However, I don’t import them. It is usually brought in by my husband who travels out frequently to Singapore, Dubai, Europe and other parts. My friends have also helped me out when they travel and I need something brought in. Regarding cost effectiveness, most of these materials are not available in India(now Passionate baking have started to stock some of them) but for the small quantities required for a home baking store, I think it makes more sense to pick it up when you travel rather than import.

D: What's your thought on this bake fest? How far do you think it's going to help you as a home baker?
SP: Firstly, I think the HBG is a fantastic initiative from Bala and Nanditha. Kudos to both of them for coming up with this idea and more importantly pursuing it by creating up the FB page & coming up with events such as these. I am still smiling thinking about how Bala’s blog reviewing work done by the 4 of us started this initiative. Some hilarious comments flowed that day on the warrior girls and their costumes leading to this fantastic initiative HBG.

Lil’Delights has been operational for the past one year now and a lot of our orders come from people seeing our work and hearing feedback on social networking pages like CFG. I have come across multiple talented bakers in the past year with whom I have interacted who have provided encouragement as well as motivation to improve. I think HBG is a natural progression from something like CFG which is food centric to something which is Baking specific. The additional big plus for all of us home bakers is the inputs that we receive on any baking question / supplies / whatever! All the girls are prompt and this is akin to a Google guide now.

D: Do you specialize only in cup cakes? 
SP: No. Apart from all kinds of cup cakes, our specialities include celebration / character themed cakes, tarts, cheesecakes, trifles and so on. Cup Cakes are my favourites though. Even though they are bite sized, they absolutely let you express yourself!
(My personal favorite is the baptism cake :D)


D: What's your theme for this showcase event?
SP: We are doing a combination of the existing all time favourites such as the Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes and couple of eggless cupcakes as well as our newer creations such as the baked yoghurt tart as well as Bailey’s Cheesecake. It is going to be a day for meeting friends, partying, having fun, learning and interacting with Chennai’s best home baking talent. Can’t wait for the big day to arrive.

That's the pretty lady here and wishing you the best for completing a full marathon some time ! :) And good luck for the fest ! 

Meet the bakers - Part 3

I'm still basking in the glory of my previous post on The ழ cafe touching over 225 hits in under 24 hours. That's my biggest till date. And now it's time to surpass that, what say people?

Presenting on today's "Meet the baker" - Linu Paul.

First off, Congratulations Linu - her online store opens today ! (So, I am just in time to congratulate her for the new addition to her website - and she has Rich Plum Cake, Rich Fruit Cake and Diamond cuts on sale)

When I told her I saw her website, and over and above that I had a few questions for her, she was thankful I'd taken the time to see her website, because not many people realize the effort and time it takes to maintain a website, especially when you plan an online store.

Excerpts:

D: What's special about your baking?
LP: I believe in healthy baking like for e.g. incorporating veggies and fruits that kids refuse to have otherwise like banana, apples, carrots, pumpkins and beetroots, yes you heard me right beets! (People - did you get that - beetroots ! :) )


D: Oh ! Healthy baking ! :)
LP: Yes, What I would love my audience to realize is that I dont use any kind of shortening or preservatives like cake gel in my products...its all healthy....another reason I am not too fond of fondant... (All you health conscious sweet toothies - you know where to go for your cakes now)


D: Where do you source your ingredients from?
LP: I source my ingredients from Nuts & Spices and the bakeware from Passionate Baking and Walltax Road.

D: What's your theme for this fest?
LP: For the event I was planning to bake some rich plum cakes(the plums would be soaked in brandy), banana walnut loaves, some muffins and some cookies. So I guess it is definitely a banana theme! (Go Bananas ! )

Linu started to cook post marriage, and she says she graduated to baking. But going by what she's creating, I think she's a PhD.







Take a bow Linu. The field is yours on 30th. Good luck for a great show ! 

Meet the bakers - Part 1

Cup cakes, Cakes, Muffins, Brownies anyone? Various flavors, shapes, sizes ? Sweet tooth? OK, I can see a lot of hands go up. All you need to do is to haul yourself up to Crimson Chakra on the 30th of this month, at 1530 hours. Come and watch 14 home bakers show case their goodies, and who knows, your next birthday party would have the yummies baked by one of these talented ladies !

And, a big thanks to KP Balakumar, for asking me to cover this event. :-) I'm so honored. :D

I'll be doing a series of posts on this event, covering as much info as possible.

This event is hosted by Home Bakers Guild. HBG is founded by KP Balakumar and Nanditha Sashidharan of The Sugar Hut fame.

KPB is a stock market trader by profession. Stock markets, food and sport are his three biggest interests. He's been playing tennis ever since he walked in diapers, was a top state ranked tennis player, captained the Madras university tennis team and continue to play tennis. His passion for food has taken him to two different avenues, a food blogger through his website www.thefoodiediaries.in and now, through the Home Bakers Guild. And KPB hopes to do his bit in helping these bakers in any way he can.

I'm missing a couple of my favorite bakers in this event, and I do hope you can make it next time. Marsha - are you listening? :)

I'm starting off this series with a few questions I bombarded KPB with and he was kind enough to respond.

Excerpts below:

D: Idea of starting HBG?
KPB: forum that connected home bakers from anywhere so that there was a lot of exchange of information and ideas. The larger objective was to connect these home bakers with the ultimate customer using the power of social media. Rather than have each baker try and promote herself/himself through their own pages, a forum like the Home Bakers Guild would be a common platform through which customers would come to know about the wide variety on offer so that they needn't go back to the same retail chains for their orders for birthdays and parties.

D: Where do want to take HBG to?
KPB: The potential of the Home Bakers Guild is amazing. I hope it becomes a forum for Home Bakers not just in India but around the world. We are just a month old and we already have over 30-35 bakers from around the country as members and 100's of baking fanatics/just want to drool over the pictures kind of folks. Our membership as of today stands at nearly 700.

D: Future plans for HBG?
KPB: well, if anyone thought that they got the best desserts at the star hotels or the french loaf's of the world, they are terribly mistaken. The wealth of talent these home bakers possess and the vastness of their repertoire has to be seen to be believed. I want the forum to be rich from the experiences of the bakers and economically beneficial to the many talented ladies that are trying to make a career out of it. The Showcase events are towards accomplishing that objective for the home bakers, to open up new markets and customers to the home bakers. We will have 3-4 such showcase events through the year and also organize workshops like food photography so that bakers can take their business to the next level.  We want all the bakers to ultimately be that way, hands full with orders..and hopefully open their own stores at some point.

Poster Design  - Nanditha Sashidharan


Coming up: Interviews with Nanditha and the 14 lovely ladies who are going to bake(!!) our evening on the 30th !