Baking secrets straight out the oven

When was the last time you saw a molten lava cake, a melt-in-the-mouth soufflé or chocolate chip muffin and wished you could recreate it at home?

Come November 24 and Reema Prasanna, 24, will show you how to live out all your secret dessert fantasies. Bake You, her personalised cooking classes in Lokhandwala Township, Kandivli (E), are meant for those “who would like to do simple home baking, anytime and with ingredients that are easily available”.

Sounds simple enough, and Prasanna, who has recently shifted back to the city, would like to keep it that way. “In a group class, people tend to get lost in the scramble and can’t really whip up eggs, mix the dough or watch a cake rise in the oven — all the simple joys of baking,” she says.

 Prasanna’s one-on-one classes are designed in such a way that people can choose what they would like to bake, according to their ‘baking IQ level’. At present, her menu abounds with delicious options like cakes, cupcakes, muffins, cookies, fudge, biscuits, brownies, soufflés and frittatas. The frittatas find a place among the baked goodies to satisfy Prasanna’s weakness for cheese.

Bake You encourages students to take home what they bake and share with friends and family. And Prasanna promises to hold your hand and guide you, explaining every step and ingredient used. If lucky, she will also share some of her baking secrets.

“Baking is a very exact art and you have to get your basics right. It is here that most people falter and need help,” she says.

For the classes, Prasanna will use a simple convection oven which has microwave settings, along with her collection of baking tools — from measuring cups to loaf pans to egg white separators and spatulas, all of which have been sourced either online or from trusted stores in the city.

Prasanna started her baking classes two years ago in Hyderabad. But it was restricted to weekends owing to her work timings. Her baking prowess soon spread by word-of-mouth, from friends to office colleagues.

“I used to bake like a maniac and blog or post updates and pictures about it. My colleagues would threaten me that I wouldn’t be allowed into office if I didn’t get anything,” she says.

Her love for baking and cooking can be credited to her husband Prasanna Raman, as she started cooking while they were dating. “Earlier, I hated the kitchen. But once I started cooking, I found that the more I cook or bake, the happier I become,” she says.

Having learnt the basics from her mother, Prasanna then began her own trial and error process with her husband serving as a guinea pig. Her favourite bake: the apple cinnamon cake. “Its prep time is a lot but this is the perfect cake for anyone who doesn’t love apples,” reveals Prasanna.

For more information about theclasses, visit www.bakeyou.com