Manning - BakeClass: learn to bake brilliantly, step by step

Take a personalised master class with baking expert Anneka Manning.

Whether youre a beginner or already baking with confidence, Anneka will guide you through a unique step-by-step lesson sequence to help you master the 10 fundamental mixing methods that provide the foundation for all baking recipes.

This must-have reference features over 90 sweet and savoury fail-safe recipes that will build your know-how and confidence in a progressive and practical way, and help you become the baker you want to be.

Youd be hard-pressed to find a more passionate baker than Anneka Filled with marvellously diverse, indulgent yet reliable recipes and lots of useful tips, this book provides a great insight into baking. Matt Moran, chef, and judge on LifeStyle FOODs The Great Australian Bake Off

This book is an absolute winner; I was captivated right from the very first page. Annekas logical approach to baking, dividing her recipes according to the method used, is brilliant. Every item looks mouthwateringly delicious I guarantee that this book will become a classic. Stephanie Alexander AO

In her 25 years as an author, food editor, consultant, teacher and publisher, Anneka Manning has worked for an impressive list of leading food publications, including Australian Gourmet Traveller, Australian Good Taste, The Australian Womens Weekly and The Sydney Morning Herald. She has also compiled, written and contributed to numerous bestselling books, including Mastering the Art of Baking (Murdoch Books).

Anneka writes regularly for a number of print and online publications, as well as having a significant television and radio profile. Through her Sydney-based baking school, BakeClub, Anneka teaches home cooks the tricks of the trade in practical, approachable and inspiring one-off classes and in her unique, six-month Make Me a Baker program. She is also a proud ambassador for Wiltshire, Australias largest bakeware brand.

Anneka grew up on her parents sheep and cattle property in southern New South Wales and now shares her life in Sydney with her husband, Paul, and their two children, Brooke and Benjamin. Her friendly and engaging approach to her writing and teaching comes from her vast experience, and she holds a firm belief that baking is something to be valued, and, ultimately, shared.

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Baking is love made edible.

Contents

PART 1

PART 2

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Lesson 7

Lesson 8

Lesson 9

Lesson 10

Introduction

My love affair with baking started early.

I grew up on a sheep and cattle property near the small town of Delegate in southern New South Wales, Australia, where my two great passions, horse riding and cooking, were allowed to flourish. Endless hours spent in the saddle, mustering sheep for shearing, cattle for marking, or simply moving a mob from one end of the property to the other were an integral part of the day-to-day running of the farm. My mum, Jocelyn, is a beautiful gardener and sewer (so good that she even made my wedding dress!), but she has never particularly enjoyed being in the kitchen. So she was more than happy for me to cook anything I wanted to, as long as I cleaned up afterwards. And so I did. And, just like horse riding, cooking served a practical purpose, but was also an incredibly pleasurable pastime for me.

Over time my interest in cooking grew, and so did my repertoire as I pored over Mums cookbooks and, at the ripe old age of seven, began my own collection. I can confidently say I was the only one in my primary school who ordered cookbooks through the Scholastic Book Club! One particular favourite was the fun and easy-to-follow The Kitchen Wizard by Deborah Jarvis (costing me all of $1.50, by the way), which introduced me to really cool cooking science, where bicarb soda made toffee foam for honeycomb, and soft clouds of whisked egg whites and sugar were transformed into crisp, sweet meringues.

Even at that time I found myself being drawn to recipes that involved baking. I loved cooking the Country Womens Associations (CWAs) cinnamon tea cake for Sunday afternoon tea (it was Dads favourite), making scones for the shearers smoko, and entering cakes in the annual Delegate Show with great success, I might add. This was just the beginning of a life that was destined to be one long foodie journey: I went on to study Home Economics and since then have enjoyed a 25-year career in food magazines, newspaper supplements and books, with baking always at the forefront. I now run my own baking school, BakeClub, in Sydney, giving hands-on practical and inspiring classes for the home cook.

But Im very aware that baking frightens some people. I know lots of home cooks who are really talented, yet theyre terrified of making pastry. They can easily pick up a new recipe for a whole baked fish or a slow-roasted shoulder of lamb and make it with great success. But theyd never attempt a double-crusted apple pie or a homemade quiche, because they just dont have the confidence to tackle this sort of recipe. Baking is not instinctive to them it feels to them like a complicated puzzle that they cant decode. And thats usually because theyve never had anyone teach them: actually stand beside them and show them the fundamentals. What these home cooks need is someone who is good with puzzles to take them through the process and help them put the pieces together! This was a role once naturally fulfilled by mothers and grandmothers, family members and friends. Sadly, in recent times a lot of this know-how has been lost, and there are fewer people spending time in the kitchen passing on their knowledge and teaching loved ones to bake.

There are many good reasons to learn to bake, not least that exquisite pleasure of sneaking a taste of your own homemade cake or biscuits, still warm from the oven. The physical steps of combining simple, everyday ingredients, often with your bare hands, to produce nourishing food for those you love is incredibly satisfying. The control you have over what ingredients you use is empowering. And the emotional by-products of the whole experience are something else completely: from the endless planning and dreaming about what to bake, to the almost meditative practice of the techniques, and, finally, the sharing of the results. I call this powerful emotional aspect the essence of baking. Its a very individual experience thats hard to describe, but it represents the way the act of baking and sharing can make people feel nurtured, comforted, loved and part of something special. It brings people together, inspires compliments and gratitude, and simply makes people feel good.