Time to bake

Down foodpath

It has only been four years since I fell in love with the idea of baking. I used to watch a lot of cooking videos, see home bakers churn out their version of desserts and bring them for parties. This  motivated me to try out something on my own.

Since I am the first baker in my family, it came as a surprise to my parents when I told them about my interest. They thought it was just a phase and it will pass soon.
    
My next mission was to convince them to buy an oven for me. They still thought that I was going to get bored with it soon. But I spent my free time trying new recipes and making myself better at it.

After a year of experimenting, I started college and realised that many of my friends are also bakers, but with experience.

I wanted to get better at what I make; I tried out new recipes and brought them toclass. They would give me their feedback and I would work on them.

It was then that I met a dear friend of mine who was also a passionate baker. We started baking different things together and my teachers took notice to it.

 We have a club called ‘Entrepreneurship Cell’ which help promote students and their work. We soon started getting orders from college and my dream to become a baker was coming true.

I recently graduated. Since I wanted to pursue my passion for baking, I enrolled myself at Lavonne Academy of Baking Science and Pastry Arts. I’ve learnt a lot during my course and I hope to do better.

I am only 20 and I know that there are many others who are more experienced than I am. Once I am done with my course, I want to intern at some good place, pursue marketing, build a capital and start something on my own. Looking back at how much I’ve grown, I think about the time I first baked something. I love chocolate, so it only made sense for me to try and bake chocolate chip cookies. I prepared the dough and put it in the oven for 15 minutes.

Since it didn’t look like the cookie that we usually have, I put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. I repeated this a few times. Then my brother told me that I needed to keep the cookie out once it’s baked for it to be crunchy.

Cupcakes have always been something very close to me. I enjoy adding and removing ingredients from the recipe and baking something on my own. Today, I am sharing the recipe of ‘Green Tea Cupcake’. Green tea is something that we like to use every day. There’s also a lemon curd filling that is added in the cupcake. It’s a healthy recipe and can be enjoyed with a cup of tea!”  Green tea cupcake

Ingredients:

* Plain flour, 100 gm
* Cocoa powder, 20 gm
* Caster sugar, 140 gm
* Baking powder,  1.5 tsp
* A pinch of salt
* Unsalted butter, 40 gm
* Egg, 1
* Milk, 120 ml
* Vanilla essence, 1/4 tsp

For green tea frosting

* Icing sugar, 250 gm
* Unsalted butter, 80 gm
* Matcha green tea powder or two to three tea bags, 20 gm
* Milk, 25 ml

For lemon curd filling

* Lemon juice, 60 gm
* Tea powder, 5 gm
* Sugar, 36 gm
* Eggs, 72 gm
* Butter, 30 gm
* Lemon zest, 1

Method

* Add the milk green tea in a jug and refrigerate for a few hours or soak it overnight.
* Add flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter. Beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and is well combined.
* Remove the green tea bags from the infused milk and combine it with the eggs and vanilla essence.
* Pour the above mixture into the dry ingredients until well combined, ensure that there are no lumps.
* Spoon in the mixture into paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in a pre-heated oven. Bake at 170°C for 20 to 25 minutes.

For green tea frosting

* Beat together the icing sugar, butter and matcha powder with a hand blender.
* Turn down the speed to low and slowly add the milk.
* Once the mixture is combined, increase the speed and beat till pale and fluffy.
* Sprinkle some over the frosting and place some candied lemon zest.

For lemon curd filling

* Boil sugar, lemon juice and the tea leaves. Strain the mixture and add 3/4th of the mixture to the eggs while constantly stirring it.
* Strain the above mixture again and put it back on heat and whisk until a creamy, thick consistency.
* Remove from heat and add the butter and mix till combined.
* Make a small hole in the cupcake, scoop out a small portion and fill in the lemon curd and place the scooped out cake portion on top and ice the cupcakes with green tea buttercream.

(As told to Anila Kurian)