Life… is a lot like baking.
Life is a lot like baking.
I often reflect on this thought whenever I find myself inspired to bake. I love how repetitive and cathartic it can be. It’s one of my favourite ways to destress. However, on some days it can get completely messy and can consume my day. In all honesty, following the recipe to a T can still result in something inedible. There are times when I fiddle with recipes I’ve familiarised myself with for years and fail miserably. Sometimes I think I’ve got things figured out. I’ve read through the recipe for the umpteenth time. Then a few steps in and I realise that easy is far from it.
Baking has taught me a lot about failure. About learning from my mistakes so that I don’t make them again.
There have been numerous times when I’ve been disappointed by whatever I’ve baked. Brownies can be hard and overcooked. Bread loaves haven’t proofed long enough. Cream puffs may be burnt because I didn’t pay attention to the oven. However, those instances of failure have also been times for me to reflect on where I went wrong. Perhaps I missed a step in the recipe or I overlooked key instructions. Maybe it was a simple human mistake or one that I had no control over. Needless to say, failure is part and parcel in baking. Pastry chefs did not become experts over night! Every single baked good we eat now went through rigorous testing and development to get the right consistency and taste. Similarly, every time we fail is an incredible opportunity to learn, grow and improve on our mistakes.
What can we learn from this? What can we do differently next time? How can we pick ourselves up and try again?
About putting in the right amount of effort and patience.
It may take just mere minutes or maybe hours. In fact, making croissants can take up nearly 2 days! Baking bread also requires a great deal of arm work. Because of this, we get awfully impatient and frustrated. We’re hungry and whatever’s baking has been in the oven for a long time — shouldn’t it be done by now? We get tempted. It’s our human tendency to be swayed by our restlessness or curiosity. We sneak a peek. We open up the oven despite specific instructions not to open it just yet. For seasoned bakers, we know this to be a no-no. Opening the oven at any time before the baking time is done means to tread on thin ice. Taken out too early and it might deflate. Taken out too late, then the cake may be overcooked, or worse, it may burn. Yet, with the slight whiff of the baked good’s aroma, we’re comforted. It may take more than a dash of patience and much more than a pinch of faith, but in the end, oh, is it always worth the wait.
How much are we willing to wait for what truly matters? Are we committed to putting in the needed effort?
About how situations that can appear so helpless can still result in success.
We may think that such random ingredients mixed together is just a recipe for disaster. How can salt make a cake sweeter? How can something as bitter as raw vanilla extract make the cake all the more full of flavour? It’s hard to imagine how the circumstances we’re in can ever be of any value or are part of a greater plan for us.
Imagine the baking powder, vanilla extract, cinnamon powder, flour, buttermilk, raw eggs and all other ingredients. On their own, they taste terrible and just downright horrendous—honestly, have you ever tasted raw vanilla extract? Yet, if one takes all of these ingredients and mixes them all up, the mixture would have varying results. Some may churn up a liquid batter while other ingredients would create a dough. For example, both flour and butter are necessary in making croissants and cakes respectively.
Experiences, trials and sufferings can blind us to the ways in which we can grow and succeed. They can leave us jaded and hopeless. Who wouldn’t? At times, we can be too caught up in compartmentalising parts of our lives that we fail to see the bigger picture. Bitter ingredients or food that can leave a sour taste in our mouth—they, too, are imperative if we want to create something that can make us full of life.
Do we see hope within our circumstances? Are we eager to see our trials through until the end?
Lastly, baking has taught me about the need to go through heat.
For the batter, dough or pastry to be edible, well, to be baked — they have to go through heat, right? That’s what baking is all about! The multitude of ingredients and the heat are completely necessary in order to produce a yummy cake. Without the heat, the ingredients would just be a bunch of random food items mixed together with no purpose and no meaning. The heat ensures that we fulfil our purpose in life; to reach our fullest potential. Our trials build us and raise us up even if at that very moment, we can overwhelmed by our circumstance and find intense heat far too unbearable. We can never have our cake without a little heat.
How can I be more resilient when I am put under pressure? What are the ways I can ensure that even when I go through heat, I can be fireproof? Or how do I let myself grow from the sufferings I go through?
Life is a lot like baking.
I’ve been baking for over 10 years now. At 9 years old, we would buy boxed mixes of Chocolate Crinkles. Back then, we didn’t have an oven so I would carefully roll tiny dollops of cookie dough and line them up on a small cookie sheet that came with our toaster. At that time, it was simply a means to pass time. Now, it has become a way to find refuge and consolation. Whenever life can leave me restless and overwhelmed, I find calmness in the midst of mixing batter and in the rolling and folding of dough.
It continues to astound me that such simple ingredients can result in amazing things that never fail to bring smiles to our faces. Baking has become my love language. I love baking and but I enjoy baking for others even more. Knowing that people are eager to see what I can offer them encourages me to take more risks, try harder recipes and go outside of my comfort zone. I may fail. I may make stupid mistakes. Whatever I bake can turn out downright awful. But I learn. I try again and do better next time.
