March 1, 2009
Li'l Miss Baker
For 11-year-old Alyssa Ho, baking cookies and cakes for family and friends is no make-believe
By Huang Lijie
While other children her age are probably baking make-believe cakes in their toy oven sets, 11-year-old Alyssa Ho is busy getting her hands dirty in the kitchen, churning out tasty cookies and cakes.
The Primary 5 pupil from Raffles Girls' Primary School started baking three years ago when she was only eight.
She is the only child of Ms Penny Ho, an associate manager of a financial company in her 40s.
Alyssa was introduced to baking by her aunt. She was visiting her aunt, who happened to be making chocolate cookies, and was roped in to help.
Alyssa says: 'I was excited and didn't mind getting my hands dirty because it looked fun.'
The cookies turned out well and she found herself hooked on baking.
She adds: 'I make cookies and cakes mostly so that I can eat them.'
Her favourite is chocolate sponge cake because she likes anything with chocolate in it. She also likes shortbread for its buttery and crumbly texture.
She says she also gets a sense of satisfaction when people enjoy her cookies and cakes.
Indeed, her plain butter cookies are so delicious that classmates who have tasted them asked if they could place orders.
Like most primary school pupils, she is busy juggling schoolwork and extra-curricular activities, such as playing the trumpet in the school band and attending art classes at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts during the academic term.
Hence, when school is in session, she bakes only on special occasions such as birthdays. Last year, she made a chocolate sponge cake for her mother's birthday.
During the school holidays, however, she bakes at least once a week and has tried her hand at pastries from peanut butter cookies and pineapple tarts to walnut cake and cheesecake.
She gets the recipes from her collection of eight baking books, most of which were given to her as birthday presents, as well as from her mother's friends who are avid bakers. She also gets recipes from the Internet.
For example, the recipe for chocolate fruit cake, which she shares below, was modified from an online recipe.
She halved the amount of prunes in the original recipe because the cake turned out to be too sour on her first attempt.
To make up for the lost bulk and to enhance the texture of the cake, she added more walnuts and almonds.
By trial and error, she also reduced the amount of sugar to achieve a cake that is not too cloying - a main turn-off of fruit cakes for many people.
Another aspect of baking she enjoys is decorating the treats.
Her favourite method is to use store-bought fondant, which she colours with edible dye. She then rolls it into various shapes and figures, such as bears and elephants, drawing inspiration from a clay modelling book.
Indeed, she finds decorating baked goods so pleasurable that she spent an entire day helping her mother's friends decorate a few hundred gingerbread cookies with piped icing for the Young Women's Christian Association's Christmas bazaar last year.
While she has been largely successful with the goodies she bakes, the one confection that has caused her grief is swiss roll.
She says: 'The cake cracked when I tried to roll it. I want to learn how to make it properly.'
Her interest in baking is so intense that she even persuaded her mother to enrol her in baking lessons at a cooking school.
To date, she has attended three classes at cooking school Creative Culinaire in Eng Hoon Street, where she learnt to make ice cream, gingerbread and French cakes - macaron, madeleine and pain de genes, an almond cake.
Usually the youngest in the baking classes, she says she is not intimidated by her older classmates.
However, she adds: 'We sometimes work with partners and when that happens, I often end up doing quite a lot of washing. But I don't mind.'
While her mother professes to not being a serious baker or cook, she is supportive of Alyssa's interest.
Ms Ho says: 'I feel it is good for her to have the chance to explore in the kitchen and do what she likes. Plus, I get to eat what she bakes.'
On what she wants to be when she grows up, and if she plans to become a pastry chef, Alyssa shrugs and says: 'I'm not sure. I have no plans.'
For now, though, she is content to bake her cakes and cookies and enjoy them with family and friends.
'I feel it is good for her to have the chance to explore in the kitchen and do what she likes. Plus, I get to eat what she bakes.'
MS PENNY HO, on daughter Alyssa's love for baking
MAKE IT YOURSELF: COCOA FRUIT CAKE
INGREDIENTS
175g pitted prunes, diced
375g sultanas
175g butter, room temperature
140g brown sugar
2 oranges, juice and zest
1 tsp mixed spice
2 Tbs cocoa powder
3 eggs, beaten
150g plain flour
75g ground almonds
180g almond slivers
100g walnut (non-roasted and unsalted)
150ml milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbs brandy (optional)
METHOD
1. Place the prunes, sultanas, butter, brown sugar, orange juice, orange zest, mixed spice and cocoa powder into a large saucepan and heat the mixture over medium flame.
2. Stir continuously for about five minutes until the butter melts and the mixture is well blended. After the mixture comes to a gentle boil, allow it to simmer for another five minutes.
3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave it to stand for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 140 deg C.
5. To the cooled mixture, add eggs, flour, ground almonds, almond slivers, walnuts, milk, baking powder, baking soda and brandy. Mix well with a spatula until well blended.
6. Pour the mixture into a lined 20cm round cake tin, or two lined loaf tins, 22cm by 9cm.
7. Bake the mixture for about 11/2 hours until the cake surface is firm and has a glossy sheen. The cake, when ready, should be moist in the centre, so a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should not come out completely clean.
8. Place the cake on a cooling rack. When the cake has cooled, remove it from the tin. Serves 12
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