Welcome to the first of a special monthly series that features a post from a secret guest. Today, Dinah's Club hears about baking from the male perspective.
I rediscovered my love of baking sweets a year ago. In my early teenage years I took a shine to making cakes (chocolate mainly), muffins, peanut butter biscuits... basically anything that came in a quick and easy to make packet. In those days, mixing some powder with a few eggs and chucking it in the oven seemed like a big deal. I'd watch on as the cake painstakingly rose, take it out and slather icing over it and serve it up to my family. The result was good but never great.
My baking rebirth came just before the boom of the Australia's Master Chef. The show isn't the reason I decided to return to the kitchen, but its success and celebration of food certainly spurred me on to follow my passion.
I love lemon tarts, always have. Naturally, it was the first thing I made, but not necessarily the first thing I made well. I made the pastry from scratch, rolling it out, placing it over the tart tin and baking it to a crisp golden brown. In making the curd, I used more than a tad of elbow grease to grate the lemons, squeeze the juice, and whisk the eggs and sugar together. It looked great cooking in the oven, like a lovely golden sunset. I wasn't sure how long to cook it for - the recipe said 15-20 minutes or until just cooked. The first crack appeared soon after refrigeration. More cracks came, like an earthquake splitting Terra Firma. It turned into a messy sight but it still didn't dull the great taste. I knew I was on the right track.
Since then I have made almost half a dozen desserts and each has been a hit. I decided to make special desserts for friends at work. I ask them what their favourite dessert is and scour the Internet and books for recipes. I've made an apple and cinnamon tea cake, a gooey upside-down pineapple cake and ugly but yummy Italian biscuits for a friend on her birthday. I even made some peppermint choc and coconut balls after losing a bet on the Grand Final.
My latest creation was a lime meringue pie in honour of a colleague's 24th birthday. It has proven the biggest hit. The lime was a welcome twist, the biscuit base was easy to make and tasty and the meringue sweet, but not sickly.
I like making things for other people because it gives me a task and the smile on their face when they see their special dish makes me feel happy. It also gets everyone together talking about food and cooking; and of course, eating. My skills are improving and I feel more confident in trying difficult recipes. I have acquired lots of baking equipment along the way including a cool space-age looking whisker, measuring cups, a tarte tin, springboard cake pan, rolling pin and a wire cake rack.
Before, the directions were on the back of the packet and everything was neat and tidy like a school essay. Now, everything seems a lot more haywire. There's pots and pans and flour everywhere, and the measurements have to be oh-so-right and cinnamon is in the house for the first time. But hey, I finally feel like I'm baking.
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