Cakeaholics Anonymous

Last week I had an experience that completely blew me away. Never in my life had I thought that I would see the day that the sight of cakes and pastries would nauseate me. And this wasn’t a single-day phenomena – it went on for the entire week. It was more than troubling – I was in near-panic mode.

Everyone that knows me reasonably well is aware of my fondness for things that contain sugar and more so if those ‘things’ include chocolate. But no … the smell of chocolate was enough to make me gag. I wanted to get as far away from the three layered Devils Food cake with chocolate ganache icing, chocolate pastries with raspberry cream filling, chocolate cupcakes iced with rich buttercream frosting (alright you can stop drooling now) as a turkey would from Thanksgiving.

You may, dear reader, ask as to what was the cause of this strange phenomenon. Or you may not ask. I am however, going to tell you anyway. I was in a Techniques of Baking class all day, all week and I have NEVER been exposed to SO MUCH butter, sugar, chocolate, icing, cakes etc. in my entire life. The smell of baked goods that would on a regular day make my knees weak had quite the opposite reaction (uh .. not meaning that they made my knees strong).

In spite of my loss of appetite for desserts, it was all in all a fantastic (but intense) class. I have to confess that I'm not used to menial labor in the kitchen. I am on the other hand, used to having a cook who follows instructions very well. In other words I’m lazy but I supervise well. This class was tough for me because I had to do everything myself. Everything that one needs to do to bake a cake well. And we were baking on an average 5-6 cakes per day. Baking the cakes was the easy part. It was the layering, preparing the different fillings and icings and finally decorating them that was painful. Painful but rewarding. The ‘painful’ part will of course go away once I’m back in Bangalore and my cook is trained. And all I will be left with is the ‘reward’.

Our class was made up of 14 women and 2 men and we had to work in groups of two. My partner was a woman from the Philippines who makes an annual trip to New York and enrolls herself in baking classes. She was a nice lady, very ‘propah’, at 9 am every morning she looked like she had just walked into class from a beauty salon – not a hair out of place, perfect make-up, designer clothes - quite the Philippino desperate housewife! I'd like to add here that she was a little bossy too in a quiet way but by day two she realized that she had met her match.

We had our very own younger ‘desi’ version of Mrs. Philippines who flew in non-stop from New Delhi the same morning, showered and showed up for class. Looking way fresher than me for sure! Now you have to keep in mind that I’m not used to waking up before 10 am. And here I was, had to be at the train station at an unearthly 8:30 am. I was so stressed that I lay awake all night, tossing and turning, looking at the time and tossing some more. So compared to Miss New Delhi, I was a holy mess!

My personal favorite was M – the class clown, always more interested in what other’s were doing, taking frequent breaks, great sense of humor, prettiest girl in class (I’m NOT sending her this blog – all she needs is a bigger head!), knew everyone by the end of day one, charmed the chef – wait a second – except for the ‘prettiest girl’ part, did I just describe myself? We were just like two peas in a pod and got along famously too!

And just for the record, I made a Pound Cake, Blueberry Crumb Cake, Devils Food Cake, Chocolate Chiffon Cake, Angel Food Cake, Coconut Raspberry Cake, several kinds of Pastries, a Swill Roll, Raspberry Tarts, four different varieties of Cupcakes, with/without filling, with/without icing etc. etc.

Each recipe is being sold for $10 (which is a bargain if you ask me, considering how much I paid for the class) – I’ve been out of a job for a while now so I’m sure you can understand my need to make some extra cash.

Please email me for details on where to send your cash/cheque/check/money order.

Summer of 2008

It’s been a while. Summer is on its way out. The lease on my apartment runs out this month. With each passing day, I get closer to checking off ‘Living in New York’ from my ‘List of things to do before I die’.

It’s been quite an incredible summer. I’ve had family and friends visiting me from all over – Hong Kong, Bangalore, Chennai, New Jersey, Chicago, Georgia, Cincinnati, Boston, Connecticut, Philadelphia – gosh, I think I’ve met more family in the past two months than I have in the past 2 years!

I want to leave New York while I’m still on a high about this city. As memorable as my time has been, I know that I cannot possibly live here. The pressure of having to be in shape, dressing well, trying out new restaurants, the constant feeling of ‘wanting to be out and either making the most of a beautiful day’ or ‘going to a show’ or just doing ‘something’ is exhausting. I’m exhausted. I want to go back to Bangalore and do absolutely nothing for a few days.

You’d be exhausted too if your summer included eating out almost everyday (and gaining weight as a result), 2 Broadway shows, a symphony, a ballet performance, exploring different parts of Central Park including the much hyped carriage ride, spending a day at the humungous Metropolitan Museum, going back to the Museum of Modern Art (just because …), doing a 3 day bus tour of the city, a speedboat ride into the East River, still trying to go to the gym 3 times a week, entertaining relatives, getting portraits made, attending a wedding and several parties, visiting art galleries, going to the US Open, miles of walking everyday, etc.

However, nothing in the world is more exhausting than shopping. My sisters who were visiting from India had insisted that they were not interested in shopping while I went ‘yeah yeah’ in my mind. I was amazed at the number of purses, footwear, clothes and more purses, footwear and clothes that they ended up with. Why am I even surprised? I really am not. I’m just wondering how the heck I’m going to get all the stuff that I’ve bought in the past year home. And I’m still looking to buy more. I hate the materialistic side of me. But I figure, when am I going to be in a city again where the lowest end store is a Macy’s?

People ask me about my New York experience and I can without hesitation say that it’s been one of the best years of my life. So much has happened that it feels like several years were packed into just one. There were times when I would try to not make plans but plans would get made by a larger force! Unexpected calls from people I never imagined I would see here. When I left Bangalore I used to joke about not giving my number and address to anyone so I wouldn’t have houseguests. And for those of you who think that I constantly had guests in Bangalore, my 400 sq foot apartment out here has seen WAY more action. I’m dead sure that the 111-year-old building that I live in has never seen so many people come and go. There were days when there was no walking space in my apartment as every square foot of free space had an airbed with someone sleeping on it.

However, all good things must come to an end. I have 47 more days in the city and I plan to make the most of each of them. Day 46 is going to have me going back to the US Open to see the Men’s finals. As much as I was hoping for a Federer-Nadal match, I really am not complaining about having to watch Federer-Murray. How many of us have the opportunity? I feel so lucky and so blessed to have the life that I do. I love being ME so thank you God!