Steamed Cakes

I have never seen my eldest brother bakes. All along I knew he doesn't mind to spend some time in the kitchen to whip up a meal or two for us. He prefers to handle everything on his own whenever he is in the kitchen. He is a man of few words but a nice guy. I love him for the way he is but I wish if he could open up a little more to me and his siblings so that we could know him better.

 

I was in awe when he asked me how to operate the oven in our mum's place as he wanted to try out some recipes. Without second thoughts I grab the chance to communicate with him my favourite subject. I showed him how to operate the oven, took out some of the baking stuff in the drawers and taught him how to use them. I copied the recipe and explain to him in detailed. I like his spirit of learning and wanted to know-how in areas that interest him though he isn't highly educated.

 

He is experimenting a lot nowadays in chinese pastry which using steaming method.  The pictures are the products of some of his experiments. He made 'Prosperity Cake' or 'Fa Gao' in Chinese and 'Red Tortoise Cake' or 'Ang Gu Kueh' in Hokkien. Both were made with no written recipes, no reference to books, websites or videos but based on his observations of taste and some small talks he had with the cakes seller in the market. It is so amazing and I am very proud of him!! If given guidance and opportunity I am sure he can go far in baking. 

 

More time to write...

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As i mentioned in my first post that I never baked before in my entire life until I started baking about 2 weeks ago, I would like to spend a little more time this week to write on the experiences and the lessons I have learnt from each self-thought baking lesson that I went through. So you will be seeing a lot of posts coming up soon for both baking and cooking projects. I have been taking a lot of photos of the end baking products and infact each time after a baking project I would either take a snap of the recipe or write down the recipe first hand without refering to the recipe book. I will later run through the list and compare it with the recipe book. By doing so it helps me to recall what, how much ingredients are used and what are the steps to follow. It is like another session of mind-tutorial that I have. Going through the baking scenes again through the eyes of my mind helps me to remember the ingredients and steps better so that I won't miss out anything important or repeat the same mistakes. Also it will help me bake more confidently, fast and easy as I may not need to refer to the recipe books all the time and this will allow the creative juice flows more naturally and easily . This technique works for me definitely though it may not work for most of us.

If a person like me can bake at the age of 34 (all of my baking projects turned out well so far), I am sure many of you out there who have not been baking at all can do it as well :). I am encouraging all to start baking as it brings so much fun, contendment and challenge that is unexplainable! I can already feel it so much even i am a novice at this stage. Hopefully, I am able to grasp the baking techniques fast and well. I am considering to sign up for baking course soon. Happy baking and cooking :>