Baking

Baking is a type of cooking which involves cooking in a pre-heated oven. Generally the oven temperature is maintained at temperatures ranging between 150 – 235 degrees Celsius, or 300 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  Housewives usually resort to baking for making homemade cookies, pastries, cakes casseroles and various forms of breads and loaves.

My wife is very good at baking and every now and then we can smell that typical aroma of freshly baked cakes when coming home. My younger son is fond of chocolate cakes, so mostly she bakes chocolate related items in her kitchen. The above photo is that of a freshly baked chocolate cake by my wife on my birthday, which vanished within minutes after blowing off the candles and singing the Happy Birthday to Daddy.

Baking is both simple and complicated. Simple for those who know it and love to bake, and obviously complicated and difficult for people like me who are good at eating baked items rather than venturing to bake even the simplest recipe. However, baking is not purely a ladies domain like other cooking techniques and types. Men are also very good at baking; rather some of the best bakers are men, who make mouth watering baked items.

While one can find confectionary in abundance in the bakeries and the super stores, there is no comparable to homemade cookies and cakes. It is the freshness of the baked items at home that gives it an upper edge over the readymade confectionary available on the shelves. Moreso, the homemade cookies and cakes cost almost half the price of the similar kind when purchased. Since kids love baked items, mothers prefer to bake at home, both to add their love into her baking and also avoid extra expenditure.

There is a growing trend in young girls to attend baking classes to learn baking. Besides, baking books and magazines are available in abundance that helps the beginners or even the experts to try simple to very difficult recipes.

Baking is lot of fun and I must say adventurous as one never knows what comes out of the oven when trying a new recipe. Try baking if you haven’t so far – it is interesting and challenging.