2020 & Lockdown is being treated with mixed feelings all around the world. Some see it as a Year of blessings, opportunities & some see it as filled with a list of challenges, problems depending upon everyone’s situations, experiences & life stages.
With no denial 2020 is a ‘Year Of Change’ in many terms, be it forced changes but all of us have understood that adapting, unlearning, learning is required to sustain & keep moving.
Like most of us, I had been trying to keep myself busy in 100’s of things during lockdown too — be it work front or home, by choice or by circumstances around! What I am trying to discuss in my this blog is around one of my recently developed hobby of Baking. It came from nowhere but need within my house from the lockdown situation. My mom’s b’day in early April pressed my brain to keep thinking of many options to make a cake like stuff for her (Yeah — I say cake like stuff because so far I never knew how to bake a cake?) to make her feel special. I had been thinking of some shortcut options from more than 2 weeks before her B’day. Some of the ideas running through my brain were….
- Just place some biscuits, layer them with chocolate sauce and lit a candle — Too Kaam Chalaaauu stuff — Naaaaa….’UnTick’
- Make Suji Ka Halwa and decorate with dry fruits and lit a candle — Super desi idea….but super flop equally as mom cooks halwa like in 5 secs — what is so special in it? ‘UnTick — 3 times’
- What about cutting some bread in heart shape & layer it with different kinds of jams at home — lol very funny Rajani! You are grown up & these funny ideas will look so stupid because this year you cant just rush to bakery store to order a nice cake for her. And as compared to last year when you & your sibling planned a surprise Terrace Party for her with all music, food, readymade cake, balloons, lightning and making her feel super awesome.
Well, the cake turned out to be nice to my surprise! Yes — both taste & the look to an extent (attached picture). I was worried about experimenting it in the oven hence chose to make more kadai cake on flame gas. My mom was so happy for the efforts and like every Indian mother she was even more happy with the fact that my girl entered the kitchen and came out learning something new. I was slightly ‘confused & equally surprised’ since I could not believe myself that the stuff in front me was like a real cake & ‘Happy’ because I could see my mother’s lovely smile while we all gathered and celebrated her day together.
And my day had some learning for myself: Don’t worry about achieving, don’;t worry about perfection — Just be there every moment as best as you can. This is all you can do!
So basically with quite a motivation (feedback) from family & my creative cells jumping left & right to know more about this baking world I thought to jump full fledge into it and kept my experimentation ON for next two months in my free time. Learned & managed to bake different types of cakes, cookies, breads, pizza dough, muffins, wraps base etc this time in Oven (check some snapshots below) and each time I started reaching more towards perfection I realised I kept learning each time — Right quantity matters, Time is most crucial thing, Patience is key and most important was — ‘It’s best baked when it turns golden brown’ and also learnt the fact that each time I was impatient or over confident I landed making a mess of the dish.
Well, the cake turned out to be nice to my surprise! Yes — both taste & the look to an extent (attached picture). I was worried about experimenting it in the oven hence chose to make more kadai cake on flame gas. My mom was so happy for the efforts and like every Indian mother she was even more happy with the fact that my girl entered the kitchen and came out learning something new. I was slightly ‘confused & equally surprised’ since I could not believe myself that the stuff in front me was like a real cake & ‘Happy’ because I could see my mother’s lovely smile while we all gathered and celebrated her day together.
And my day had some learning for myself: Don’t worry about achieving, don’;t worry about perfection — Just be there every moment as best as you can. This is all you can do!
So basically with quite a motivation (feedback) from family & my creative cells jumping left & right to know more about this baking world I thought to jump full fledge into it and kept my experimentation ON for next two months in my free time. Learned & managed to bake different types of cakes, cookies, breads, pizza dough, muffins, wraps base etc this time in Oven (check some snapshots below) and each time I started reaching more towards perfection I realised I kept learning each time — Right quantity matters, Time is most crucial thing, Patience is key and most important was — ‘It’s best baked when it turns golden brown’ and also learnt the fact that each time I was impatient or over confident I landed making a mess of the dish.
And Big Kudos to my family 😐 they kept trying my experiments with lesser complaints and less genuine feedback at times when it went wrong — all out of love! Family where life begins and love never ends — Eeeks I am not typing the clash of clans stories here 😀
For example this “Banana cake” (Attached picture) looks nice but you will find it tough to chew with your natural teeth (Not sure how many of you have seen Anchor toothpaste advertisement, I quite relate it to that). But my mother nicely complimented me — Beta, we can use this as Rusk with evening tea and I could see my brother nodding his head in a Yes to that. I bursted into laughter and my ribs still hurt 😀 😀 Maybe all moms are made up of such material that they never see flaws ever.
I always had passion to cook food in my free time (just like food meditation — It’s my ‘Me time’) Though I am not like a master chef but try to experiment & cook food which is not part of our regular Indian meals and lately able to relate cooking with my new hobby of Baking — Bake chickpea flour till it turns golden brown to make best Besan Ladoo or Halwa (Indian Sweet), Fry onions till they turn golden brown and each time there was different set of learning which I would try to implement back into my work & life in general. At times when I was eager to get the final outcome in hurry I realised I missed some important step and the dish ended up to be less tasty.
Well, I believe it’s just like — All of us need to go through the mud to get to the gold. In my case ‘Golden brown’ 😀
Life’s basic elements are the same for everyone, everything, every situation. It’s just how we apply from what we learn matters! The struggle lies in managing your time for everything around and how much you devote to reaching the Golden brown stage.
I am delighted to share what baking & cooking taught me so far (Helping me to progress to reach my golden brown stage and journey is still ON!):
- Carry Learning attitude & just to remind learning is a continuous process regardless of your age & gender.
- Keep adding flavour of your own creativity.
- Keep the motivation ON! If you are losing it, have company of good people who are there to motivate you and not to drill you down and make sure they keep eating what you cook (Lol) 😀
- Patience & Hard work is the key! And don’t forget to bring your soul to your work.
- Keep No regrets! Just lessons learned.
- Not everything will work out the way you planned. And it’s ok!
- Be courageous — Go to bed and tell yourself I will try it again tomorrow. Leave outcome for people who will taste your dish 😛 (Lol)
- Adaptability — What if you don’t have cake flour ? Can you use wheat flour?
- Devote quality Time for what you want to pursue (maybe you never know your hidden talent or passions)
- Feedback matters — Listen to the people who tell you what you don’t want to hear (Ofcourse, not all of them — you know who matters)
- Keep reminding yourself — You are ‘Young at Heart’ to learn everyday. Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 70. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
And here goes some out of box learnings:
- Kitchens are meant to bring families together & I believe important life lessons are learned at the dining table. Make sure you cook something for each other & thank god for food on your plate & enjoy meals with your family in this lockdown (Do you have any other option?)
2. We are what we eat & think, so don’t be cheap & fake.
3. Respect the person who cooks for you. It’s not that easy job to do everyday.
4. And last but not the least, (I read it somewhere) Real men wear Aprons with no shame. Cook or learn to cook wholeheartedly for your very own family.
