My next steps in Baking

I recently attended the Creative Craft Shows at the NEC this November. The show was a great time with the exception of the number of people attending! The show is held across 4 halls and for me the baking and cake shows were of particular interest.

Yes, these are edible

Firstly I would like to show some of the pictures I took of the edible displays at the show, they were mind boggling.

Its is staggering to see what people can do with icing!

I Had an empty feeling

The problem I had with the show was a lack of interest in what most of the exhibitors were showing. If you wanted cake moulds, boxes, various decorations or other such decorating paraphernalia you were spoilt for choice. But I was looking for my next step in baking either in tuition (which was near non-existent) or hardware (some but nothing mind blowing). Not only that but there was a lot of overlap between the different stalls. I lost count of the number of places I could buy muffin toppers or different kinds of sprinkles.

I sat down and thought about how I can improve my baking and came up with some next steps.

Adding to the Recipe Book

My first goal was to bake a small Victoria Sponge cake or muffins. This is an area I just haven’t done a lot of work in but I would love to do so. I especially want to work on the muffins as they are great to bring into the office.

In a similar vein my second goal was to make my own flapjacks. This may seem simple (and it is) but like with cookies and brownies (two items I make regularly) there is a lot of room here for experimentation and customization.

New Techniques and Ingredients

My third goal was a bit more left field which is to make my own fudge. Much like the flapjacks I think there is a lot of room here to have fun with it but also this is a very different confection. Rather than baking something to completion your melting the ingredients together and then cooling the result.

My fourth goal was to make a vegan cake. I have a few colleagues at work who are vegan and I would like to include them in my baking. This seems to require some very different ingredients and can mean the cake comes out differently. Learning how to adapt recipes that use these ingredients to produce more inclusive cakes would be excellent.

Here be dragons!

My final goal (and more of a stretch goal) is to make some pastries. I haven’t decided on what yet. I have spoken with other bakers and the discipline of pastries is feared. They seem to be a lot of work but from what I have seen on YouTube I don’t think they are all that scary. Plus if I can crack this it opens up a whole new area of baking to me!

Progress, however small, is still progress

All of these items are things I haven’t done before but I feel are within my grasp. They contain new techniques or use ingredients that I haven’t used before. With these as my next set of goals I hope to shift my focus from looking for better gear and to improving my skills and just gaining experience in putting my hands to use.

I had previously taken up the electric Bass Guitar and I think I had ran into this issue before I burned out on the instrument just before the pandemic. I want to come back to it as I still have my guitar but for now I am hoping to learn from the experience and prevent myself from repeating that with baking.