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The academics of science never interested me, but I am fascinated with the myriad contributions of this discipline in our lives. I am inordinately grateful to Jose Hernandez Burgos and Arturo Lona for inventing the circulating convection cooking oven. Having thanked them for their priceless contribution to the art of baking, I start this post as  promised to my little niece in who wanted to bake a cake.

To begin with, think of something you enjoy doing and also ask what sciences are used to make it happen. The kitchen is a great place to start. There is science in any food preparation. There are chemical and physical changes that occur, bacteria and fungus work over-time and even the sensory stimuli and colour preferences are a part of science.

I just realized the holiday season is round the corner and baking a cake seems so dot on!! The smell of a freshly baked cake with candied fruits, allspice and that extra bit of nutmeg does delicious things to my senses. Very pleasurable, I must say. And having said that, I will not elaborate on it, maybe another time in the same space.

My baking is not limited to weekends, birthdays and other occasions. I do not need a day for disasters to happen, I call out to them!!! Similarly, I bake whenever I feel like it. Very therapeutic too. Add to that a great work out for the arms and torso and you have an all in one session, don’t discount creativity and the right to have the first bite!!!

I always baptize my cakes. The one I am making today is the constellation cake: it has silver balls on the chocolate icing that look like stars on the sky on a moonless night. You can let your imagination go wild here and chose whichever constellation that fits your mood.

A funny thing happens every time I bake with astonishing regularity the recipe calls out to me. Uncanny eh? Tell me about it…it is not I who decided what kind of baking will take place the cake calls out almost begging to be baked.

Baking a cake isn’t a cakewalk but it most definitely is not rocket science. It’s a deeply emotional experience where you get to bake your cake and eat it too. It is a great way to conquer your fear of flour and learn to love and cope with every step of cake making including the moment when you present your made-from-scratch masterpiece to bedazzled hungry-eyed family and friends. There is nothing intimidating about baking a cake except for the part when it comes to dividing it in a way everyone believes he has the biggest piece.

Let’s start baking folks. I have colourful bowls, pots, pans and gadgets in my kitchen. Cheers me up and of course my rudimentary cup of tea in a lime green mug. Am sipping a Green Tea called “Buddha On The Mountain” at the moment, something I picked up in a quaint little tea shop in Hong Kong, after being extolled of its many virtues including blood pressure controlling capabilities.

Coming back to my utensils they are a mix of orange, yellow and green. The cup I am using is a beautiful electric blue it looks great filled with the white flour. In fact I need to fill it up again just to see the sight once more but this time just fill half of it, so one and half cup of flour goes into my sieve with a heaped spoon of baking powder and half a spoon of fruit soda. I sieve it into my large orange coloured bowl. In the yellow bowl the eggs are cracked in three is not a crowd here and sometime you can even take four to make the score even. Into the eggs go three-fourth cups (the blue cup again) of cooking oil, olive oil and mustard oil are absolute no-no. Use the normal cooking oil. I avoid butter for the obvious reasons. Then add the sugar, use packed demerara sugar, it is healthier and gives the cake a lovely light brown colour. Now whisk it all together with the hand mixer till creamy adding a teaspoon of vanilla essence, I added some sweet almond essence and nutmeg powder just to make it richer. In the small green bowl go my candied fruits and raisins which need to be well covered in flour so that they don’t sink to the bottom of the cake. Yep that’s the trick. Ok, before I flex my muscles and exercise my arms with the whisk I have to coax and prepare the oven. I have chosen my 6” round cake tin in gray and lovingly coat in with butter and sprinkle flour and gently tap out the excess. The oven has been turned on to maximum, it is red-hot not with anger but anticipation!! The egg mix is poured gently into the waiting flour. The electric whisk will be called in only for the final round. With a wooden spoon fold it all in gently and then start whisking till your arms feels heavy and are ready to fall off from the socket. For heavens sake did you really think I did that?? Use the electric whisk for god’s sake, who does all this when science has made life and baking so much more bearable! Dump in the fruits and raisin and here use the wooden spoon and with utmost love and emotion fold them in gently into the dough, while saying a little prayer. Darlings, the cake is ready to be baked and will need to go into inferno and be readied for purgation. The best results are when you bake at maximum for the first fifteen minutes and then turn the temperature down to half and let it bake for another fifteen to twenty minutes before poking it to test if the inside is firm or wobbly. If your prayers were heard it should take only a few more minutes to be ready. By now the heavenly aroma of vanilla and nutmeg will have floated all over and the neighbours will know something is baking.

Take out the cake from the tin and let it cool before smearing it with chocolate icing which is available in any grocery store. Making your own is too tedious. And you get to lick the ladle now and then. Dot the icing any kind of confetti, silver balls or let lose the artist in you.

A word of caution: your cake will not be perfect and like old friends a bit battered and worn. My recipes are like those old pair of jeans you slip into when you want to get really comfortable and be yourself.  These homemade cakes are undemanding, cozy and there for you like a best friend.

After all it’s just a piece of cake!!!

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