Chen Shuang BEFORE I started baking, people told me that it was addictive. Now I know exactly why. The feeling when you have completed baking something that you started from scratch, and it is as picturesque and tasty as you imagined, is something that you want to experience repeatedly. When I am stuck at home on a rainy day, or trying to pass a lazy Sunday, I envision a baked product that I would like to eat. I imagine taking the first bite of a sweet sponge cake, or inhaling the aroma of freshly baked bread. A varied collection of biscuits are also a sight to behold, especially when you have made them yourself. Some things are fairly easy to bake, and having the ability to bake comes in handy. Imagine the convenience of being able to make something delicious for your loved ones when the shops don’t have anything quite to your taste. Biscuits are the most enjoyable thing to bake because it is easy to create a variety of shapes and images. I enjoy the process and the sense of accomplishment of making biscuits even more than I enjoy eating them, which sometimes I don’t. Doing something so creative that has such a palpable result is a great form of stress relief. The main item you need to bake is, of course, an oven. For use in a home, an ordinary 25l capacity oven is sufficient and should cost you around 500 yuan (US$79) in a supermarket. If you are adept at finding bargains online, you should be able to get one for 300 yuan or less on something like taobao.com, and it means you don’t need to lug a heavy oven back to your home. An oven can also be used to bake cakes or pizzas and to roast meat. Chocolate almond biscuit This is a biscuit very easy to bake, even if you have no experience of baking. Ingredients: 35g softened butter 35g caster sugar 1 egg 80g cake flour (low-gluten flour) 10g cocoa powder 0.5g baking soda 15g sliced almonds (can also use other nuts such as walnuts) Preparation: 1. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar together until smoothly blended , stir the egg slightly, then slowly add eggs into the mixing bowl. 2. In another bowl, sift flour, cocoa and baking powder together. Blend into butter mixture until smooth. Stir almonds into dough. Put the dough into freezer for 20 minutes. 3. Use a knife to make dough into1cm slices, or use biscuit cutters to make the dough into different shapes. Place them on the oven pan. 4. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, bake for 16 minutes. Cool the biscuit after baking. Chiffon cake (8 inch) Ingredients: 70g cake flour (low-gluten flour) 100 g caster sugar 1/4 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons of vegetable oil 4 eggs 3 teaspoons of water 1/4 teaspoons of vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon of lemon flavor Preparation: 1. Separate egg whites and yolks into different empty bowls. 2. In a large bowl, add flour, salt and baking powder. Mix together and sift into another bowl. 3. Put sugar into the yolk bowl, stir until sugar melts into yolk. Mix oil, water, vanilla, and lemon flavoring all together into the bowl. 4. Add flour mixture into the yolk mixture, beat lightly until smooth and light-textured, do not stir. 5. In another large bowl, stir the egg whites until they are very stiff. 6. Slowly pour the egg whites and fold them in with the batter, with rubber spatula. Do not stir. 7. Get a cake model and pour the batter into it. 8. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Bake for 30- 35 minutes. 9. After baking , turn the pan over and place on a heat-proof funnel. Leave to cool. Custard tart (15 medium tarts) Custard tart is one of the most delicious snacks that can be found in most Asian countries, especially in China, Singapore and Malaysia. Ingredients: Whipping cream (unsweetened): 200g (if using sweetened vege-dairy whipping cream, then reduce half amount of caster sugar) Milk: 180g Evaporated milk: 15g (optional) Caster sugar: 80g Egg yolk: 4 Flour: 10g Cornflour: 5g Tart shells: 15 Preparation: 1. Add the whipping cream, milk, sugar and evaported milk into a bowl, then heat up and keep stiring until the sugar is completely melted, cool for 1-2 minutes, then slowly add the egg yolks into the milk mixture and stir well. 2. Sift in the flour and cornflour, mix the flour into the milk bowl. 3. Fill the tart shells with egg custard (70 percent full), be careful it will spill out easily if the tart shells are completely full. 4. Preheat the oven to around 220 degrees Celsius, place tarts into the higher-medium shelf, bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove them from the oven when they are golden brown. | 