Upgrade: Skills for a home baker | Whitecaps International School of Pastry

Upgrade: Skills for a home baker

People often ask us why they should pursue baking as a serious profession. To them we always reply back with the same inquisition, ‘Because everyone loves people who can make them happy, and what’s better than cakes and desserts to bring a wide smile on your face?’
Yes, baking is infectious. Apart from flouring white snow over the kitchen counter, it also helps spread a whole lotta love. What if you took your baking skills to a level beyond making routine cookies and graduating to the crème de la crème? Thanks to Whitecaps, that dream is slowly becoming a reality for scores of hobbyist bakers!
But before you delve deep into the many layers of being a professional, you should know of some basic ingredients that go into the making of a seasoned baker.
The devil is in the details
Focus, perfect timing and step-wise precision are always going to come in handy, and no, we’re not talking about golf. Baking is as intricate as science and sports (fun fact: baking involves a whole lotta science). You should be confident about your recipe and use the right amount of ingredients down to the t.
Start from the start
As we know, if the base is strong, so will be the foundation. If you really want to be in control of your creation, you should ensure it from the beginning. A great way to do that is to start shaping and scoring your bread. This will make sure that your loaves come out beautifully and bake evenly.
Don’t get carried away
Making the dough/batter may seem like a beautiful process, but it has to be done with some measure. Since flour contains gluten, which keeps losing its elasticity the more you beat it, knead it or stir, you’ll need to be wary of the timing and not overdo it.
Be patient and stay dedicated
As much as baking is about ingredients, recipe and approach, it also requires you to acquire some life skills. Being a pastry chef is one of the most testing professions as there will be time when you do everything perfectly, but your pastry would want more. Being a seasoned baker is a gradual process of learning, unlearning and relearning, which requires you to show utmost patience and dedication to the art.
Bring your creativity to life
While there’s quite some charm in the classics and most bakers stick to creating quintessential cakes and bakes, the curious and brilliant ones always astound people with their out of the box masterpieces. As long as you’re being inquisitive, have a spirit of experimentation within and are patient with all the trials and errors that are bound to happen along the way, your own masterpiece won’t be far from reality.
If you’re thinking that we’re here to just burden you with all this knowledge and preach without practice, you’re wrong. If you love baking and want to graduate to the next level, Whitecaps is just the place for you.
Every art admirer needs a professor of big calibre and rich experience, and we’ve got quite a bunch headed by Chef Arvind, our very own certified star chef who lives and breathes the art of baking. With courses like Cake Engineering, you can acquire all the technical and life skills we threw light on, with ease and unparalleled guidance.
Whitecaps prides itself in enrolling baking enthusiasts and moulding them into professional chefs who go on to carve their own destiny and their own masterpieces. If you’re one of them, you know what to do now. Chop chop!
The devil is in the details
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