Bakers on campus: Sugar, spice & everything nice

By Linette Leong

As we usher in the season of assignment submissions and final examinations, we may need that extra sugar rush to power us through our late-night study sessions.

The Nanyang Chronicle introduces five of our very own school bakers, so that you will know where to go to satiate your sweet cravings. After all, stressed is desserts spelled backwards.

Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
Adeline Tan (@dee_bakes)

 

Baking was Adeline Tan’s way of relieving her pent-up stress when she was a junior college student.

Drawing her inspiration from other Instagram bakers’ pretty desserts, she decided to follow suit, kick-starting an account solely for her cakes.

Within just two years, her account has garnered over 3,000 followers, made up of her family, friends, and even strangers who urge her to sell her bakes.

But all was not smooth-sailing for the second-year Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI) student.

Recently, Tan accepted several requests within a day that required her to bake 50 brownies, 40 cupcakes and a two-tiered birthday cake, but the plans almost fell through when she battled the stress of baking.

“At four in the morning, nothing was going right — the consistency of the frosting was too runny, the cakes looked really horrendous, and I kept running out of ingredients,” she said.

“It was a huge mess and I was afraid to disappoint my customers.”

Eventually, the 20-year-old put everything aside and went to bed. She took a three-hour rest before baking everything from scratch again. After nearly 10 hours, she finally finished her orders.

“With the encouragement from my family and friends, I eventually completed what I set out to do. But after this incident, it really taught me not to bite off more than I could chew,” she added.

Ultimately, what pushes Tan to continue baking is how her bakes put a smile on people’s faces.

“It’s always nice to make someone else’s day and I feel like a cupcake or cookie is a great way to do that.

Seeing other people happy makes my day a little better too,” she said.

Be Bold and Adventurous
Sophie Ng (@sophiensyy)

From red velvet to salted egg, and black sesame to matcha, Sophie Ng’s bakes have always been at the forefront of food trends.

Despite so, her best-selling items are her classic bakes — the fragrant earl grey lavender cupcakes.

The final-year School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) student first started baking to satisfy her insatiable appetite for desserts, with her personal favourite being the good old New York cheesecake. She would then post pictures of her bakes on her Instagram account.

When friends and strangers left comments and dropped her direct messages on Instagram to ask for price quotations about her cakes, she then decided to turn her passion into a business to earn some pocket money.

With an initial social media following that consisted of only her friends, her Instagram account following grew to a whopping 16,000 followers in just two years.

Her pro tip in baking? Be bold.

Guided by her adventurous spirit, Ng has created desserts of almost every flavour imaginable — from the pistachio rose cake to chendol cheesecake and even an ondeh ondeh flavoured cake.

“Your cakes may not be delicious all the time, and you may be afraid to try quirky flavour combinations, but go ahead and keep trying anyway,” she said.

“Something great will definitely come out of it.”

Practice, Patience, Love
Lee Su Fang (@fang_cakes)

Second-year WKWSCI student Lee Su Fang is the embodiment of her signature earl grey lemon curd cupcake — elegant and creative.

After completing her ‘A’ levels two years ago, Lee started experimenting with new recipes by watching YouTube videos.

However, Lee knew that her family’s appetite for sweet treats could not keep up with the rate that she was baking. She then started an Instagram account, in hopes that she could get some orders from her friends and family members.

This not only helped her to clear the bakes in her home, but it also allowed her to experiment with new flavours.

But as the workload of university life kicked in, the stress of handling a baking business slowly took its toll on Lee.

“A big challenge is juggling both school commitments and baking at the same time,” she said.
While others take their weekend to catch up on sleep and recuperate from a hectic week in school, Lee would often spend her weekend baking.

From liaising with customers and listening to their requests weeks or even months before, to the logistical planning involved, it can often get both physically and mentally draining for the 20-year-old.

But no amount of fatigue can stop Lee from pursuing her passion. Her secret recipe to baking the perfect cake is practice, patience and love.

“It is the very moment right after the cake is done and I see that the different components have come together nicely. All the hard work was worth it,” she said.

When asked about some tips and tricks on baking, Lee stressed the importance of using good quality ingredients and materials so that the product will look impressive.

“Use social media to your advantage and capitalise on the marketing via various platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. It acts as free advertising,” she added.

A Pinch of Salt
Fina Jahan (@fifibakes)

Last year, Fina Jahan received a customised order for a royal-themed birthday cake.

After a few days of planning and preparation, Jahan completed the two-tiered cake, which was topped off with a princess tiara.

It might have been a fairytale ending for both sides, but unfortunately, the customer mishandled the cake and shifted the blame to Jahan.

Instead of reasoning it out with the customer, the 21-year-old knew that the cake was important for the celebration, and decided to bake another one so as to not ruin the special day.

“It did break my heart that something I put so much effort into ended up smashed, but I also decided to be professional about it,” said the third-year School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering student.

As baking has always been an activity Jahan enjoyed since young, such unfortunate incidents do not dampen her spirit for it.

Instead, they taught her how to handle a business professionally.

From biker-themed cakes to elegant wedding cakes, Jahan bakes customised cakes of various themes.

When asked about her top baking tip, Jahan stressed to always add a pinch of salt in all our recipes, as it would bring out the flavour of the cakes.

“Trust me, it makes all the difference.”

Learning from Experience
Sim En Ching (@batterlogy)

Sim En Ching’s unrelenting attitude propelled her into the highly competitive field of Instagram business just four months ago.

Her specialty? Marbled macarons.

Since she started baking, she has tried to bake macarons of different themes. She even baked a macaron twice the size of her palm.

On top of that, the second-year HSS student also showcases her creativity by exploring different flavours — such as her Halloween specials, which include cookies and cream macarons with a mini oreo stuffed in its filling, and fruity pebbles macarons bursting with organic fruit filling and made with zero sugar.

Sim’s main bakes are her macarons. As a novice baker, she feels that the steps behind making a good macaron are a lot less complicated than baking a cake.

But what many do not know is that these dainty little French treats may be easy to make but are difficult to perfect.

In fact, the 20-year-old spent over two months trying to master the skill of baking flawless shells with “happy feet” (ruffles on the edge of the shells).

On top of that, she spends nearly 10 hours on each baking session every weekend, baking an average of 250 macarons — that’s 500 individual shells.

“Before I perfected the macaron shells, they were dome-shaped. I called them volcanoes,” she joked.

Despite multiple failures, Sim persisted as she relished the feeling of success whenever her macarons came out perfect.

“Sometimes, you visualise the end product to be a certain look, but after it comes out of the oven, it can look very different. This is very common because there are way too many variables to control. So keep the determination going and learn each time you fail,” she added.