Many of us would have tried to bake at least once and may have failed miserably at some point. For those who find fluffy-and-yummy cakes to be ‘mission impossible’ can now take a breather! Cake Mall offers a one-day baking and dessert-making workshop regularly in the city. Chef G Vishweshwaran will guide participants with hands-on experience.
When City Express visited the venue for one these sessions, we found the chef shuttling between two tables, with five women in each, trying hard to knead the dough for Baklava, tarts and apple pie. We followed him back and forth from one table to another, for a quick a chat.
“I learnt cooking when I was in Class 7 and gradually developed an interest in baking. I was getting bored with south Indian cuisine and I began innovating,” smiled the guy who began his career at the Leela Palace, Bengaluru.
Today he trains chefs and their crew in various establishments.
In the past few years there has been an increase in people taking up baking as a hobby. According to the chef, the interest in making panna cotta, cheese cake and Baklava has shot up in the city too! “These desserts are a classic. My interpretation is that anything that has chocolate or ice cream in it will sell in India,” he added.
Dividing the desserts into cold and hot, he shared that it’s important to understand your customers’ requirement. “That’s even more important than learning the basics. Usually, all my desserts are egg-based. But today, we are going eggless,” he smiled.
In the workshop, the women were all busy finely chopping the cherries for the tart and apples for the pies. Parul Gupta, one of the participants opines, “We are learning a lot here. Though everything is now available in the market, we want to learn to prepare simple ones at home.”
So what are the most common mistakes that Indians make while baking? “Well, there is no way of making any mistake, if one knows to manipulate the ingredients in the right way. A small tip I would like to give is that knowing the consistency of the dish will help you get through without any fault. For instance, a panna cotta should be soft and have a jiggle, a mousse should be creamy and very soft, and a cheese cake should be dense and easy to cut. We have to play with the ingredients keeping this in mind,” he explained.
The common knowledge about baking is that it involves kneading the dough, using an oven and making a cold frosting. But Vishweshwaran smiles and says, “I can make half a kilo of black forest and serve, but it’s not a dessert. But if I slice it into equal portions and serve it as a pastry, then it’s a dessert. Most baked dishes can be dessert, but not all desserts can be baked,” he said
Cake mall conducts workshops regularly at their office in Nungambakam. For details, call 78110 23456 or visit https://www.facebook.com/CakesOnlineDelivery/