Bakery I, II and Cake Decorating Courses by Tesda

Six months ago a friend asked me to enroll in a Tesda sponsored baking class with her. Her family had a bakery and they wanted to add cakes on their list of goodies available. I dutifully tagged along with her, depleting my wallet in the process in what proved to be a rather uneducating experience. But it was fun.

I didn't say it was educating because it wasn't really. We were given a list of ingredients and tools to bring - they only provide the classroom and oven - then the procedure was listed off in the board and we simply follow it. No discussion of the scientific part of baking whatsoever.

Even the instructor sometimes forget to list one particular ingredients or it was listed in the wrong quantity. They were also trying to save on the gas so we have to bake everything in one go, those that finished early will have to let their batter stew awhile until the instructor was ready to preheat the oven. The result; I had to go home one too many times bearing cakes with burnt edges, or one that didn't fully rise or one that had rose beautifully but fell once taken off the oven.

The only redeeming part of the whole ordeal was the fun part - eating! Three cakes recipe per week in fact. Well actually there's also breads, cookies and pies in there too but we mostly bake cakes. Three months in and I started buying new clothes because my old one were becoming slightly constricted around my middle. Losing weight will definitely be in my New Year's resolution!