My First Baking Class
Last evening was the first time I tried my hands at baking, along with 5 other friends from the office. At the end of 3-plus hours, we made 2 desserts. I used the word 'made' cos one of my friends, Wei Ching, pointed out you don't technically bake tiramisu. Touche. Anyway, the other dessert was mixed berries oats crumble, which entailed baking.
The verdict - it was really fun, even though the 6 of us were split into 3 tables cos we arrived a tad late. Jason, June and Siok Ling were at one table, Cheryl and I another while Mei Ling kindly volunteered to join a third. What made it fun was the fact that the instructor was a nice man with lots of patience. He went through the recipes with us and completed some of the more time-consuming processes (like making whip cream and boiling syrup water etc). During the making of the crumble, we were supposed to add in the eggs one after another into the mixer, but one of the groups did it a bit too fast and with hilarious results. It was also enjoyable as the class was very sporting and we all took turns to mix the ingredients, fold the mixture and wash whatever needed washing.
While making the tiramisu did not require baking, it was not exactly a walk in the park. When the ingredients were being mixed, you had to stop the mixer periodically to scrap the mixture down from the side and turn up the bottom to get a even mix. After that, you had to fold the mascarpone cheese with tiramisu compound and mocha coffee powder into the mixture. Of course, the instructor did it with much more flair and finesse, unlike the rest of us who handled the spatula with as much grace as a fat man doing ballet. Making the crumble was a hoot, partly because we tried to put in as much berries as we could. But this resulted in having to bake them much longer than anticipated, which was why the 3-hour lesson went into overtime ; )
At the end of the class, we were quite tired as we had stood on our feet the whole evening. This, plus the fact that we went for a tree-top walk along the southern ridges in the afternoon (as part of our division's cohesion programme), meant that we were ready to hit the sack. Of course, some of us couldn't wait to try the tiramisu and crumble upon reaching home. And I must say we were all proud of our creations, albeit aided by our instructor and fellow classmates. Let's say this won't be the last time the 6 of us ventures into a baking class.
The verdict - it was really fun, even though the 6 of us were split into 3 tables cos we arrived a tad late. Jason, June and Siok Ling were at one table, Cheryl and I another while Mei Ling kindly volunteered to join a third. What made it fun was the fact that the instructor was a nice man with lots of patience. He went through the recipes with us and completed some of the more time-consuming processes (like making whip cream and boiling syrup water etc). During the making of the crumble, we were supposed to add in the eggs one after another into the mixer, but one of the groups did it a bit too fast and with hilarious results. It was also enjoyable as the class was very sporting and we all took turns to mix the ingredients, fold the mixture and wash whatever needed washing.
While making the tiramisu did not require baking, it was not exactly a walk in the park. When the ingredients were being mixed, you had to stop the mixer periodically to scrap the mixture down from the side and turn up the bottom to get a even mix. After that, you had to fold the mascarpone cheese with tiramisu compound and mocha coffee powder into the mixture. Of course, the instructor did it with much more flair and finesse, unlike the rest of us who handled the spatula with as much grace as a fat man doing ballet. Making the crumble was a hoot, partly because we tried to put in as much berries as we could. But this resulted in having to bake them much longer than anticipated, which was why the 3-hour lesson went into overtime ; )
At the end of the class, we were quite tired as we had stood on our feet the whole evening. This, plus the fact that we went for a tree-top walk along the southern ridges in the afternoon (as part of our division's cohesion programme), meant that we were ready to hit the sack. Of course, some of us couldn't wait to try the tiramisu and crumble upon reaching home. And I must say we were all proud of our creations, albeit aided by our instructor and fellow classmates. Let's say this won't be the last time the 6 of us ventures into a baking class.
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