Our baking ‘loft’

One photo before we start our baking

Start of creaming butter & sugar together

Sieving out the flour & cocoa powder

Letting it bake for 30 – 35 min

Hot Chocolate souffle, my favourite item of the afternoon (can’t post the steps because there was absolutely no time for any photos or even talking!)

It tasted so good…

Nearly-finished product of Chocolate Mocha Cake

Slapping on the ganache and making it look ‘awfully chocolate’ :)

The last time I ever attempted to bake was some 2 years ago when I did a non-bake Mango cheesecake and a Mango delight swiss roll which was well received (at least by my colleagues then). It was good fun, I enjoyed myself but I never ever baked that same recipe again since then because I don’t really fancy my home is a good baking environment. Or rather, using my SIL’s oven and my MIL’s kitchen combine and not knowing where they each keep their stuff will frustrate me before I even start baking… Although I love the idea of preparing desserts for my frequent guests instead of having to get something from Udders ice cream.

So recently when I saw a baking class being offered at a discounted price on Reebonz for The Baking Loft , I knew that I needed to inform Elle (she’s more of an avid baker than I am) about it. Actually I needed to convince her to attend one with me ( not that she needed much convincing after reading about the details of the class).

I was already sold just reading The Baking Loft‘s 3 main selling points: small-sized groups (max. of 8 so that you don’t get too ‘lost’ at any point of time), hands-on approach (I absolutely love this sort of teaching style. I don’t get demo-only classes in fact, I might as well watch the cooking channel instead of paying to watch a live demo) & convenient location (at Central mall). And this was important to me because most of the other classes I attended would usually be one or the other like having a hands-on approach but because the groups were like 5-6 pax in one, we could only participate in a tiny part each, or the location would be somewhere far east or west of Singapore that wouldn’t be too accessible by public transportation.

And of course, reading about how to create a souffle (probably one of the most tough desserts to do because timing is so crucial) and an entire cake from scratch (without Betty Crocker’s help) was icing on the cake (no pun intended).

The location was relatively easy to get to – the corridors reminded me of a hotel. Once we got to the unit, it was like a SOHO apartment inside with lots of sunlight shining in, fully air-conditioned with each participant having their individual work stations. Chef Jimmy Kea took time to introduce himself, teach us some baking fundamentals to take note (% of full cream vs. low fat vs. butter milk), showed us a proper demo with detailed explanation before letting us go entirely hands-on about our creation. It was plenty of fun, asking if we were doing things right and I ate a lot of chocolates <burp>

I liked that they didn’t bother to rush us off too, let us took our time to complete our creations and the best part, there was a dedicated person to do the washing & drying. Hooray.

If you’re keen on holding small private baking/cooking events (you can even bring your own wine/champagne to pair), do check The Baking Loft.

I know Elle & I will definitely be back for more baking fun! And hopefully someday I can earn myself a ‘Kitchen Aid’!