If Tamil Nadu were a giant cake, what would it look like? Fifty home bakers from Chennai are all set to let their imaginations ‘dough’ the work at The Great Chennai Bake Show on Saturday. We’re told by Anu Lath of homebakers.co.in, which is organising the bake-off, that, “The themes in store are fairly hush hush for the moment — but participants have hinted at everything from temple tiers and sights from vintage Madras.”
That said, here is the crazy part: no one at the event gets to eat the cake! All of it (an estimated 100 kgs) will be distributed to underprivileged kids by the Robin Hood Army. The latter is a volunteer-based organisation that works to get surplus food from restaurants to the less fortunate.
Cream of the crop
Apart from the competition, this intensive baking boot camp will also see masterclasses from experts on French macarons (Karthika Shravanthi), designer wedding cakes (Maaria Kulsum Tanveer), bonbons using coverture chocolate (head pastry chef at Food Consulate, Chennai, Chef Jins Paul) and even cake photography (Subhashini Ramsingh).
Incidentally, similar events have already been held in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune by Anu (UK) and sister-in-law Anjana Lath (Hyderabad), since they launched homebakers.co.in last November. “Our platform is a small step to give home bakers and customers an organised place to operate from,” says Anu, who got the idea when she was looking for a custom-cake for her nephew in Bengaluru and found it to be a bit of a haywire experience. Incidentally, Anu is a management consultant while Anjana is a homebaker herself. The two plan to expand their baking network on the website to 12 cities in India through the year, with Kochi in April slated next.
Not a piece of cake
But this weekend, from what we can tell is going to be anything but a piece of cake. Bakers are gearing up to cream the competition — literally!
On February 23. At Park Elanza, between 10 am and 5 pm. Participants and those interested in attending can register at homebakers.co.in
sonali@newindianexpress.com | @brightasunshine