Now find baking secrets of your favourite desi bloggers in one place

If you’re a fan of bloggers who bake —the Home Bakers Guild (HBG) just made it possible to get over a hundred recipes across popular desi blogs in one place. This is courtesy the forum’s week-old ebook The Homebakers Guide to Everyday Baking compiled from members country-wide. Incidentally, the book has been long awaited since it has been two years in the making. Heads up, you do need to be a member to access it.

Founder of the group KP Balakumar who came up with the idea, clarifies that the purpose of the venture is not to provide new or exclusive baking formulae. “Most of our contributors are bloggers who post regularly after all,” he says. Instead he points out, in the age of the internet and social media where recipes are a dime a dozen, “Here is a place where amateurs can access exact measurements and baking tips from familiar names that they follow everyday, so there is a level of comfort when they attempt that first cake.” 

Whether it’s Aparna Balasubramanian’s Brown Buttered Carrot Cake from her blog My Diverse Kitchen or Spicy Pull Apart Garlic Bread from Shano Biju of Soulful Bakes — amateur bakers now have about 60-odd baking connoisseurs (contributors), a good majority of them on the blogosphere, to learn from with a single click. 

Since HBG was started in Chennai with a humble one hundred members back in 2012, the guild has grown to over 1,60,000 members both in and outside of India. So we aren’t surprised when Balakumar tells us, “Some of these recipes have been mailed in from as far as the United Kingdom, Canada and UK.” 

The list has been divided into sections like Breads, Cakes, Muffins and Brownies and Healthy Bakes — we have our eye on the Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Jaggery Muffins! Not surprisingly with vegetarians one of the more popular sections is the one on Eggless Bakes. Look out for the pro tips dedicated to egg substitutes while baking as well. Hoping to make this ebook an annual affair, much like their massively popular Grand Annual Bake Sale, Balakumar lets on that their 2018 edition will be more elaborate, flavour tested and is planned to be made available to the public.

The Homebakers Guide to Everyday Baking is available to members of the Home Bakers Guild.