BAKING 101 Live Q & A with Cookpad Kenya | Baking tips for Beginners | @Cooking With Nimoh

Hey guys, welcome. I'm trying to request Cookpad to join because we are doing the live session with Cookpad. Hey everyone, I'm trying to wave to everyone who's joined the live right now. Oh hi, how are you? Hi everyone. Hi, can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you clearly. So I think we are good. I think we're good. We can start with the live. So welcome everyone. My name is Nimo and we've been joined by Zawadi from Cookpad and we'll be doing the baking one-on-one session. So we were to have it last week but we didn't have it because of unavoidable circumstances but at least now we are having them. I'll tell you a little bit about Cookpad and Zawadi will add anything that I've left out in regards to Cookpad. So Cookpad is a platform whereby you can post your recipes, you can share with your friends, you can get recipes like to cook for dinner inspiration, to cook for lunch, dinner and all that. And the recipes are by home-cooked professionals and even chefs. I have a list of chefs that I follow but I can't remember offhand. So it's a really good platform to be in. So you can always check it out later or on the side right now. Anything you would like to add Zawadi? Yeah and our mission in Cookpad is to make everyday cooking fun. Make any simple recipe you eat at home and share with your friends. Inspire each other. Our value is to be a chain of foodies who encourage each other and build a happier and healthier community. Welcome everyone. Glad to see you here. Welcome you on Cookpad platform. Cookpad Kenya because we are in 71 countries currently. So we see how international we are. Yeah. So I have a couple of questions from the people who asked last week and some of them were coming from my dm. I think I shared I shared a couple of them. So maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background in baking so that at least even when people are asking questions. Yeah actually I'm a baker. That is my passion and I'm a baker from experience. And I'm able to answer at least a number of questions without any problem. So let them come. Yeah I've sampled your cake so I know. So yeah now that is a very a very tough question. It's a lot of tough. Between a gas or electric oven which one would you prefer? Between a gas or electric oven which one would you prefer? Like if you are going to get an oven. Actually for me I have both but I I'd advise for now with the current economy electric is way to go. But gas you can have an addition. If you don't have because of the KPLC gas is always handy because of the the fluctuation of the of the electricity. But I prefer electric electricity because the tokens are way cheaper than gas. And people find trouble in baking with gas unless you are shown literally how to use. It's very hectic unless you have a thermometer or something oven thermometer. So I'd rather use tokens because I've tried both and the result even the token cake is cheaper than the gas cake. And does it make better in terms of like even when you're doing when you're baking with an electric oven is it more even than when you're using a gas oven? Yeah it's not the same unless for an electric oven unless you have the expensive ovens like like Elba or Ariston the cakes are not up to. But gas is the result are excellent because gas is much hotter it's it's hotter when you bake with so it brings good result. So and if you have these cheap ovens normally the cakes are not all that fluffy unless you use your skills your head bake. So mostly if you bake with a gas I'd advise you bake with a gas oven but it's these days it's very expensive. If you're a newbie at baking and you are doing it on a gas oven yeah but I would advise you can afford the cheaper ovens like the 60 litre ovens invest also in an oven thermometer because most of them heat unevenly. If you have a thermometer it will heat it will tell you it has reached 180 degrees then you will automatically bake with it and it will bring a fluffy and moist cake. So the ovens come with a natural the I think the time itself but it's an evenly proportioned so when you bake you find that some parts of the cake are soggy and the other parts of the cakes are fluffy so you need to invest in an oven thermometer to be able to bake with these cheap ovens. Yeah because the cheaper the oven the result is not good. Actually if you want to if you're a passionate baker you can invest in a better oven like the inbuilt ovens maybe the Elba, the Hearthstone or Beko but these portable ovens are a mess. Sometimes they mess you up because of the time they start heating unevenly. Okay at least now I've also learned something about the difference between gas and electric ovens in terms of when you're baking. Okay another question that I really get a lot is will they all get according to you? No but there's this thing in baking I think baking is you need always it's not just it's an art so there are cakes that require oil there are cakes that require blue band or butter there are cakes that require butter so you find that most bakers just bake with blue band or prestige or something but if a cake asks for whatever it asks if it's cooking oil use cooking oil because the results are totally different and it's not bring yeah for example you have 200 grams butter you have 200 mils oil of oil of when you're doing a cake they have told you to use 200 grams of butter or another cake 600 mils of oil if you do both cakes they'll be definitely different so you have to follow that of a good cake is you have to follow the recipe to the latter because and if you are a good baker you'll just look at a recipe and know whether it yield a better cake or it's the all of the recipe may be altered and maybe didn't want to give you the so you can maneuver in your own way and bring out a nice cake but if you're a baker learning it's so hard to tell whether the cake will be yummy that's why you find people trying to bake but they they bring out soggy cakes because you just bake because you've been given a recipe you don't use your head and say will this really add up to a nice cake so baking is an art you have to use your head even if i borrow your recipe i i need to all i can you can give me a recipe out of not a good way okay you don't want me maybe to know what you're doing so i you must use my head to alter and so that the recipe can suit me yes yes so even the recipes that i usually especially on i got i got one school i've never done a banana bread on my page so i've been looking around for a banana bread recipe like one which so i try this i tried one i don't know yeah so i'll try and get them here on the background and mention him but usually has very nice like you know from the clear like you say i'd i'd make it well before you can if i'm following so another question that i get is um let me see let me see let me see uh i don't know what what could be the reason of uh getting mushy tape because there's someone who asked uh my cakes come out very mushy what does that mean yeah mushy text is a lot of liquid oh a beginner i would advise you know i'd rather that person invests in eggs you know eggs are not actually expensive she can use a lot of and avoid liquid you see she'll bake a good cake but i think she uses less eggs and uses a lot of liquid so the cake becomes so good also that her oven is poor maybe she heats up like at 140 it's not even 180 preheating then she bakes yeah okay you have to just magically when it says back at 170 preheat at 180 back at 170 you have to follow this to the latter um yeah i agree and even the ear parts are being mushy because of the temperature it could be i should have asked a follow-up question to ask whether it's a gas or electric because yeah and i think she needs to add to add um to add to use at a moment actually thermometers are just the game if she she needs to use a thermometer to to gauge her oven because most ovens are not what you see most ovens are china made and they don't hit heat evenly they're china made they don't have something that the animals they don't hit evenly they just hit one side is hot the other side is not very hot so you bake you sit down relax knowing that your cake is baking when you cut one part is so when you have a thermometer at least you you'll not you'll produce a good okay so when we cut to home baking when someone wants to maybe start a business let's say uh one and number two how do you price your your your goods because let's say for me there's a time i was thinking about it like about starting a home bakery from home then i'm thinking everything that i'm using i'm not saying that but because of the quality that i want i have to use expensive things butter so how do you go about it in terms when you want to make when you want to make for profit when you want to make for profit actually you need to weigh you need to weigh what you've used actually you can use something you can you start with shopping also you shop at a place you shop in bank and shop at a place that is cheap you don't go to cafe and you can cook the same thing so you start with that you cost like you cost like when you you cost everything you add the labor and also you add your labor what you do yourself you have to pay yourself so me what i do if it's a cake like i've used two eggs three egg three like three cups sugar i i i put the price like an egg is 10 bob for me i can say it's 10 bob i use three eggs so i i i put the prices of everything i've used the labor electricity the water everything i multiply by two why multiply by two because of the miscellaneous something can happen in between because you you have to i don't know what i can say because anything you you do honestly like three eggs will get 30 bob if you you get like a cake normally my cakes i can get like an average of expenditures like 600 or something so i just multiply by two and able to charge the customer i'll be able to pay myself i'll be able to whoever did some something for me i'll be able to buy tokens i'll be able to fill whatever i am using the water i'm using labor but you find that people just list down i use three eggs three then they say maybe i can just say 200 i add on top remember the customer can hear you drop it at his place the customer can say you do this this covers for a lot of things so anything you do just do the costing and multiply by two so that it's it's good for the mislead and anything that can arise or whatever okay so um and in terms of marketing what do you think are the best ways like okay how do i now get my business out there like like like giving us advice from your from your end how hard was it how easy was it yeah it's actually i'm just talking from experience in kenya actually the best business are the best business that have a lot of input business for business to get high you have to go to go deeper like adverts like the adverts but as like the middle class or who are starting off the best thing you can do is buy referrals because if you eat my cake definitely you have friends do you you can tell my friend your friend you see referrals can lead you to the another step another step as you go so before you go to that internet start with your neighbor as you perfect answer to them referrals really give you a limelight to go to go to the social media because you can go to the social media and your cakes are not up to standard so you'll waste your cash you'll see you'll waste your resources so start with when you have so many referrals then you can go to the advert path on the social media then that's but corporates definitely start with the adverts because they have money they start they hit high yeah okay hi another question that i guess is like what are the principles of doubling and halving halving and like if i want to if i bring a one kg cake and then the person who's like the recipe so how do you go about tracking the recipe you multiply the recipe by two or there are some things you just leave and don't just use as they are in the recipe yeah i'll give an example like for a cake a normal cake like you i have used 400 grams flour 200 grams sugar 200 grams butter cup of milk to get half that cake that's precisely a one kg to get a half that cake i'll half everything oh if i want to if i want like a high like a double i'll double like 400 they can put 400 i double like 400 i put 400 200 put 200 that's doubling the cake i'll get two kgs yeah but if i want i'll have to there from the one kg ingredients i'll have the ingredients what about the leavening agents like baking powder and baking soda do they remain the same mama you also double you you also double because definitely the cake will be then the ingredients will be too much so you have to double everything if it's one teaspoon baking you have to do two for the double you've done or if you have to have and then there is someone who said yeah i know so yeah and i've also experienced the same because there's a time i used to do soda and then when i'm eating the cake you know so what do you think of baking soda is not used in all cakes baking soda is is is actually it's used to neutralize like it's like an acid acid what what do they call it because you use it in in in when you use buttermilk is when you use the baking soda to neutralize the acidity when you're using lemon so not all cakes and if you have people have their own tricks because they think baking soda makes cakes fluffy but baking soda only is used to neutralize the acidity in cakes when you're using buttermilk so baking soda is always used in red velvets and some unique recipes so and if you want to put in cakes as so people think it makes the cake fluffy do not exceed an eighth of a teaspoon because if you exceed it in the cake will be bitter definitely because when when i'm baking even if i see a recipe to say maybe at once one tablespoon of baking powder one teaspoon of baking soda i usually change everything and i do one teaspoon and a pinch of baking soda any a literal pinch that's a good question those who don't know will follow that recipe and it will be bitter so they should just take note when any recipe with baking soda please minimize that you can do a pinch always a pinch that is an eight over yeah so um the next one is um i answered this one but i would like to also have the opinion on this um in your opinion what's the what's the general uh rule of thumb when baking the rule of thumb the rule of thumb is always i think we have five or four i think rules of thumb we have five or four always in baking always always preheat your oven always use the correct ingredients always follow the recipe to the latter i think i can answer it that way yeah you can't do guesswork just follow what has been written we have like three more questions so there is someone who asked my cake baked very well and come out very come out very delicious but they don't try what could be the problem maybe the oven door was opened too early or raising agents they are definitely maybe expired you can buy a raising agent if you don't check the expiry date it will always fluctuate but no way you'll put the right agent and you don't open the oven door prematurely and the cake doesn't rise that is i don't know maybe the oven also preheats unevenly it's it's cold inside and she doesn't yeah she must check the oven temperature always uh i can't i can't i can't seem to remember the other one because um i think this one you already answered between which one do you prefer between baking powder and baking soda you remember you said um it's always good to use baking powder and an eight of baking soda yeah so this one just a pinch you know rather i use a pinch because a pinch an eight somebody can use the teaspoon they use in the normal teaspoon is a disaster so let me just tell them a pinch because if you don't have the real measuring spoons then you have you can mess up it's just yeah okay so we're done with the question i don't know if there's anyone anyone who's viewing live who has a question that one um anything to do with baking or life you know let me see whether they're interested about baking so um where is your bakery located so that people can at least even promote you my bakery is on thicker road uh the other side not clay city clay city the other side it's it's not zimmerman really but it's just the other when you reach carwash you you just cross the other side my bakery is there it's known as parallels food parlor okay yeah okay how are i don't see any questions so i don't know uh so um so i think we're done now in terms of maswali and i'd like to remind guys that you can always check out um the word is recipes on cookpad or my recipes on cookpad and other home cooked and foodies recipes on cookpad when you go there at cookpad when you post your recipe you can always tag me you want us to try or feature your recipes in um i'm doing i'm doing this for like currently because i'm not doing much posting or cooking any of my recipes i'm just trying out a recipes if you'd like me to try yours remember to do a hashtag either then we can we can see where i can tell you so i have a question do you still um post the classes because i saw you're doing a a zoom class a zoom cooking class yeah we have a zoom cooking class uh any anyone who's interested can download our app on play store or use the link and you join the zoom hangout we're having a zoom hangout and also a unique recipe we are teaching for free so if any is interesting you can just download the app share at least a recipe or you can just download the app and you can still yeah so i'll also do a post later on and link up the the free cooking class that cookpad is hosting so if you'd like to join you can sign up yeah so that's the things that i think we're done for for this live we'll be doing another live so if you want to watch us uh when we're doing the other live on facebook please feel free to join us and i will save this live session for everyone who's not uh who hasn't been able to join us yeah and uh thank you thank you for taking your time to share with us and share with us your knowledge thank you too and welcome please have the live really want to watch also okay okay okay enjoy your evening and everyone for joining us thank you thank you thank you thank you very much thank you so much