Baking Again

Last weekend was exceptionally thrilling for me. Me, the undomesticated soul, did some baking!!!

Wahh...a new, improved, domesticated MOI?? Even I was surprised with myself. Well, the story of my baking "trivia" started way back when I was studying in a secondary school in my hometown Seremban. Those days, we girls had to take this one subject known as "Sains Rumah Tangga" a.k.a Domestic Science. My girl friends and I always joked on the name of the subject. We renamed it to "Sains SURI Rumah Tangga".

Mrs Seow's glasses looked something like this.

This subject was somewhat interesting. We learned how to sew, cook and also bake. My teacher was a Chinese lady, Mrs Seow..if I recall her name well. She was some character. She was a bubbly small sized lady who had those 60's like a-go-go dancers glasses and was extremely sharp with her words. If we slacken in her class, she would tell us that we would end up as spinsters for we didn't know how to cook and wasn't able to get anyone to marry us. And if we did get married, our husbands would "lali" (lari...as how is was pronunced by her) with other women who were better cooks. At the age of 15...urgghhh...none of us girls was thinking of marriage. So we would totally ignore her treats.

I laughed most of the time in her class. As punishment, I had to sweep and clean the DSC (Domestic Science Classroom). She made sure I gilap (polish) all the cutlery until I could use them to look at the pimples on my face!!!

Mr Seow's BM was urghhh...how shall I put it...hilarious!!!. She would time and time again confuse these words...kelapa & kepala and kipas & lipas. Her favourite lines were, "Sekarang masukkan KEPALA ke dalam kuali". Literally translated, "Now put your HEADS into the pot". And with that statement...who wouldn't laugh until pecah perut!!! My friends and I almost fell off our stools when she said that. Mrs Seow meant KELAPA (coconut) and she had said KEPALA (HEAD). Just imagine, putting your heads into the ovens? Now...macamana tak ketawa???

One time she screamed her lungs out and said, "Saya ade nampak KIPAS!!!" We looked up towards the ceiling of our classroom. But she was instead pointing to the drawers. Ooo...she was confusing her words again. So...how not to laugh?? When she realised, she had fumbled on her words, she would say, "Kenapa awak semua ketawakan saya?" (Why are you laughing at me?)

Mrs Seow also used to get mad with me when my cakes didn't turn up well. No matter how hard I tried, the cakes I baked would not be as fluffy as others. They always would turn up hard or batat (flattened). Mr Seow said that if she threw my cakes to the wall, it might just make a hole in the wall. Wahhh...so teruk ka??? Well, I guess they did!!! It was then when I accepted the fact that I was not cut to be a baker, not even if I have to safe myself with the skill.

Mrs Seow continued teaching us until our form 3 exams. I did pretty OK in Domestic Science in the exam. When I showed Mrs Seow my result, she said this to me, "Good result. Ha...now u can get married already." Gosh...what a comment!!

With those not so glorifying experiences in my domestic science class, I had obviously stayed away from baking. There were a few times when I tried baking cakes for hari raya. Some of the cakes I baked turned up OK but many didn't. As the years passed, cake houses and bakeries mushroomed. I could still get nice cakes even without making them. I was extremely trilled with the sprouting of outlets like "Secret Recipe" and "La Manila". Cakes are still aplenty...no worries for me.

Milk, coco powder & kissable Hershey's

Basic ingredients butter, sugar & flour

My indifference towards baking came to a pause when one day last week, my daughter Farah, told me that she wanted to make cupcakes for her Kemahiran Hidup class. Sweaty palms and all, I was dumbfounded!! Aduss....she would now be relying on me to show how it's done. Instantaneously, those visions of my flattened cakes from school days came like a play back in my mind.

My cupcakes in the oven

So, during the wee hours of last week, I did my homework on baking. Got some useful tips on the Internet and finally...last nite, I gathered my guts, cleaned up my oven, got out my mixer and started baking.

Wallah...this is how they turned out to be!!!

The outcome of my effort was very rewarding. My cupcakes turned out OK. Not hard as how they used to be during those school day. Nissa ate 5 of them at one go after I took them out from the oven.

My baking still needs improvement for sure. But what made the most out of it was when Nissa told me, "Mom, U are the world's best baker!!!" She may not have any famous bakers she'd be comparing me with, but I know she was impressed with what I did. And that surely made my day...

I guess I'll be baking more in the months to come. Hopefully this newly found interest of mine will stay and not be short lived as some of my other "hot" pursuits.