However, I had the rare opportunity to bake not just once, but TWICE this past week---and both were successful adventures!
1. The first time was with one of my advanced students as we set out to make a birthday cake for another of the women in the class. Now Marady is an unusual case, for while I said no one has an oven here, she used to work at an American bakery located here and once it went out of business, she continued to bake on commission out of her home. (However, unfortunately she cannot make much of a living off of this as many of the ingredients are so expensive and there just is not much of a demand for cake here...) Anyways she picked me up on her moto and brought me back to her house, which also doubles as a center and dormitory for around 30 university students who have come from the provinces to Phnom Penh to study.
We made a vanilla cake and it was incredibly dense and delicious! The process was very much like what I'm accustomed to back home, except flour and such is weighed on a scale like in the UK and we added Coke and powdered milk to the batter, which I have never done, though I know it's not uncommon. The cake expanded far above the top of the pan, so we feasted on the the 3 inches we had to hack off the top while we cut flowers from fondant-like material and waited for the cake to cool.
The health inspector or FDA would have had a heyday with us though as we worked amidst flies, ants, and geckos and did everything, from forming fondant to greasing the pan, with ungloved hands. (look closely at the picture above. I realized afterwards that I managed to capture some of the obnoxious little flies atop the flowers) It trust all the germs baked off... Nary loved it nonetheless and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to bake with Marady, whom previously I probably knew the least out of our class. Since it took us nearly four hours, we had fun just talking and I loved learning about what brought her to Phnom Penh, how she met her husband, what it is like to share with these students who come to the center, her difficulties in trying to find a job, and so much more.
Happy Birthday Nary!
2. The second baking venture was a bit more of an experiment. Rika, our wonderful Indonesian host, wanted to learn how to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and asked me to teach her. First off, let me remind you that Khmer seldom bake and therefore the necessary items are either unavailable (such as chocolate chips...) or exorbitantly priced (2 sticks of butter=$3.00; and don't forget this is Cambodia where I can order a delicious MEAL for $1.00) However, you just get creative and learn to improvise.
Yet it wasn't the lack of ingredients that made things so interesting. Not having any traditional measuring devices, we proceeded through a process I fondly call "dump baking" where you simply eyeball it. It became tricky when Rika wanted to know exact amounts in order to replicate the recipe because, not only was I completely guessing, but in my baking world of using cups and teaspoons, I also have no concept of GRAMS. Oh, and did I mention the OVEN?
Fitting only four cookies to a sheet and having to twist the timer every five minutes made it a slow process. But it worked!
Believe it or not, they actually cooked and were remarkably delicious---as attested to by the fact that I am admitting it, my American teammates are in agreement, and all of the cookies have DISAPPEARED :)
Perhaps we can next attempt pie...?
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