A conversation with BakeClub's Anneka Manning, a melting moments recipe + a Bake, Eat, Love giveaway6/5/2014
'Dear Liz, this is your invitation to BAKE! ❤ Anneka.' reads the delightful inscription penned on the first page of my review copy of Anneka Manning's Bake, Eat, Love. Oh my! Baking is such a pleasurable past time and of my favourite things now I'm retired, so I'm with you, Anneka. Anneka Manning started collecting recipes at the ripe old age of seven and remembers being the only one in her primary school who ordered cookbooks through the Scholastic Book Club. She was drawn to recipes that involved baking and would spend her time making scones for the shearers on her father's property, and entering baked goods in the Delegate agricultural Show. 'This was just the beginning of a life that was destined to be one long foodie journey,' she writes in her book Bake, Eat, Love - Learn to Bake in 3 Simple Steps. Anneka has worked for leading publications including Australian Gourmet Traveller, VOGUE Entertaining + Travel, and australian good taste; as well as appearing on television and radio. She has also compiled, written and contributed to a number of successful, award-winning books, including good food and more good food (Text Publishing), The Low GI Family Cookbook (Hachette) and Mastering the Art of Baking (Murdoch Books). Anneka now owns and runs a baking school called BakeClub, which she says is a reflection of not only her life-long passion for baking, but also her personal and professional experience as a home economist, food editor, author, publisher and mother of two children. Anneka and I caught up by phone and email recently and I'm sharing our conversation with you: Anneka, it's lovely to catch up with you after such a long time. Congratulations on the success of your Bake Club and your latest book Bake, Eat, Love. You must be delighted with their success? Yes, thank you Liz. It’s been a big 12 months since I launched BakeClub last May. After spending about 25 years in food publishing, across magazines, news papers and books, I felt it was time to take all of that experience and knowledge and pour it into my passion, which is baking. I also wanted to create something that was approachable and accessible for the home cook and allowed them to learn how to bake through a number of different mediums. The response to both BakeClub and Bake, Eat, Love has been wonderful so I really feel there is a need for getting back to the basics in this modern world of ours. I love your description of what lies behind the 'essence' of baking. Would you care to elaborate here for my readers: As I say in the introduction to Bake, Eat, Love: “There is no denying the exquisite pleasure of sampling a generous slice of butter-rich homemade vanilla cake, a plateful of moreish freshly baked biscuits or a big wedge of soul-warming apple pie. But the reasons for baking at home start way before and go way beyond the eating part. In my own passionate and often all-consuming lifetime affair with baking I have come to understand there is much more to it than the purely physical combination of simple, everyday ingredients to produce something that is eaten. The wonderfully emotional by-products of the whole baking experience are something else completely. From planning or discussing the intention (think how excited kids – and many adults – get at the mere mention of choosing a recipe to bake), to the almost meditative practice of the baking techniques, to the sharing of the actual baked goodies, something incredibly special is at play. I call this powerful emotional aspect that underlies the physical steps the ‘essence’ of baking. A very individual experience that is hard to describe, the essence represents the way the act of baking and the sharing of the baked goods can make people feel nurtured, comforted, loved and part of something special. It brings people together, inspires compliments and gratitude, and simply makes people feel good. In my way of thinking, baking warms the heart and feeds the soul. It is something that is to be valued and, ultimately, shared.” Please tell my readers a little about Bake Club, what your mission is, and how folks can join: BakeClub is both an online baking resource as well as a physical baking school where we offer both hands-on and demonstration-style BakeClasses. Through these online resources, face-to-face BakeClasses and my writing and presenting, we teach home cooks the basics of baking in approachable yet inspiring ways, while giving them the know-how and skill to bake with confidence and success. Simple techniques, fail-safe recipes and clever tips that are relevant to their modern lives (and home kitchens) is what BakeClub is all about. We bring real baking into the home. I like to say that we don’t do the ‘fancy’ stuff, we just do the ‘real’ stuff! The majority of our face-to-face BakeClasses are held at Flash in the Pan Studio in Rosebery, Sydney. However I do host Private Group BakeClasses and other special events in various other locations throughout Sydney, regional NSW and interstate. My ultimate goal is to reconnect home cooks with not only the basics of baking but also the magic that surrounds it and, through this, with those they love. I want BakeClub to be the go-to place for any home cook who wishes to bake, no matter where they live, no matter what their baking ability. There are a number of ways that home cooks can connect with us. To start with they can become a member of BakeClub to receive exclusive recipes, our monthly newsletter, BakeNews, my regular blog, special member discount offers for our BakeClasses and much, much more. Who are your food heroes, or who inspires you the most when it comes to baking or cooking? I’ve tended to look to some of the wonderful international food authors such as Julia Child, Nigel Slater, Diana Henry and Alice Waters for inspiration and guidance… they have all influenced my cooking and baking for many years – in different ways but all substantially. One thing they all have in common is a wonderful way with words. They make me want to sit down and read their cook books, not just cook from them. As far as Aussie food heroes go, Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer and Margaret Fulton make up my trio. Fabulous women who have strongly influenced the way we eat and cook in Australia today. To bake the types of beautiful food that you all bake, it's important to have a well-stocked larder, so what staple ingredients or whole foods do you always stock in your larder? I always have a well-stocked pantry. I feel that everything is OK if the pantry is full. These are just a small selection of my staples:
What fresh ingredients are always in your shopping basket? Lemons. I don’t even need to think about putting these in the shopping basket at the moment as our tree is very generous during Autumn. We go through two or three a day in salad dressings, tarts, puddings, cakes and biscuits and, to finish the day, fresh lemon and ginger. Butter. Pure, rich and as natural as I can lay my hands on. I prefer unsalted in most of my baking. Apples, pears and mandarins. At this time of the year I choose good selection seasonal fruit to snack on and for lunch boxes . And pumpkin. Even though the rest of my family doesn’t particularly like it I make big batches of soup with leek, fennel, carrots and/or zucchini and freeze it for a quick lunch option when I’m working from home. What is your favourite or most useful baking tip? Liz, I have a few baking tips that I feel are essential. For example, what size is your Tablespoon measure? In Australia, the standard tablespoon measure holds 20ml or 4 teaspoons. However, in the US and the UK a tablespoon holds 15mls or 3 teaspoons. More often than not it is the 15ml tablespoon sold in our local stores while our recipes are written using the 20ml tablespoon! Check the size of your spoon and adjust the quantities if necessary. It won't make a big difference when you are measuring ingredients such as flour and sugar, but if measuring concentrated ingredient such as baking powder or yeast, it can cause real imbalances in your baking. When it comes to the cookbooks you bake from, do you prefer to keep the pages pristine or do you like it when they’re well used and the pages are just a little dusted with flour? Definitely dusted with flour, stained with butter and smudged with chocolate. I’m also known to take to cook books with a pen, making my own comments and adjustments to be remembered for next time. I would be sad if people felt they had to keep my cook books in pristine condition. I write books and recipes to be used (not just read and looked at). To me a marked book tells me it has not only been well used but also well loved! [I agree!]. Do you have an all-time favourite recipe (either in the book or on your blog)? The Melting Moments (from Bake, Eat, Love) and Almond & Raspberry Cake (from my Blog/Website) are possibly the two recipes I come back to again and again. Everyone loves it when I bake them. What's on the agenda for you and Bake Club for the rest of 2014? Lots of BakeClasses and events, including two delicious. magazine reader events later in May and a gorgeous heirloom baking class I’m doing with the Monday Morning Cooking Club in early June. I’ll continue to write my fortnightly blog, Bakeproof, for SBS Food along with guest blogs and my own blog, BakeBlog, as well as creating lots more content for the BakeClub website. Our second year will all be about making sure our members are getting the resources they need to bake brilliantly no matter where they live. It will be all about fail-safe recipes, helpful tips and tricks and easy-to-follow techniques… and of course spreading the word about BakeClub. And finally, what’s for dinner tonight? Not sure, Paul, my husband, is cooking while I do the hockey pick-up. But last night I did a slow-roasted spiced shoulder of lamb with turmeric and coriander pilaf. Great autumn fare (and the leftovers were perfect for the school lunches today). [Yum!]. Anneka, is there a recipe you might like to share with Good Things readers? Liz, Melting Moments are a favourite of mine and I'd like to share my recipe from Bake, Eat, Love as well as my video that accompanies the recipe: MELTING MOMENTS These melt-in-the-mouth buttery biscuits, sandwiched with a creamy, sweet buttercream are an all-time favourite. This version has the addition of orange zest in the filling, which adds a subtle citrus tang. They’re the perfect accompaniment to a cuppa. Preparation time: 40 minutes Baking time: 16-18 minutes Makes: about 18 250g butter, cubed, softened 110g (2/3 cup) icing sugar 11/2 teaspoons natural vanilla essence or extract 250g (12/3 cups) plain flour 60g (1/2 cup) cornflour Orange buttercream filling: 60g butter, softened 1 orange, zest finely grated 125g (1 cup) icing sugar, sifted Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Use an electric mixer on medium to beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy, scraping down the side of the bowl when necessary. Sift the flour and cornflour together over the butter mixture. Mix on low speed (or use your hands to mix) until just combined and a soft dough forms. Use lightly floured hands to roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place on the lined trays, about 5cm apart (you should have about 36 balls). Dip a fork in flour and use it to flatten the balls to about 1cm thick and 4cm in diameter. Bake in preheated oven for 16-18 minutes, swapping the trays after 8 minutes, or until the biscuits are a pale golden colour. Remove from the oven and cool on the trays. While the biscuits are cooling, make the orange buttercream filling. Put the butter and orange zest in a small mixing bowl and use an electric mixer to beat on medium speed until pale and creamy. Add the icing sugar and beat on low speed, scraping down the side of the bowl when necessary, until well combined and smooth. To join the biscuits, spread a little buttercream on the base of a cooled biscuit and sandwich with another biscuit. Repeat with the remaining biscuits and filling. Baker’s Tip These biscuits will keep in an airtight jar or container in a cool place (not the fridge) for up to 4 days. © Anneka Manning. Recipe originally published in Bake, Eat, Love – Learn to Bake in 3 Simple Steps. WIN A COPY OF BAKE, EAT, LOVE! Anneka and BakeClub have generously offered me five copies of Bake, Eat, Love - Learn to Bake in 3 Simple Steps (each valued at $24.95) to give away to readers of Good Things. To be in the running, please subscribe to Good Things (if you haven't already) and simply tell me in 50 words or less why you love baking. The competition is open to Australian residents only (with apologies once again to my overseas friends) and closes at midnight on Sunday 18 May 2014, so pop in and enter now. The winner will be notified by email and book will be posted direct to you. Please make sure that you enter your current email address (one you check regularly!) with your comment so you can be reached in the event you're selected as the winner. SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Please note, only genuine entries will be considered. Please don't submit entries using false names and bogus email accounts. This is not appreciated. Multiple entries from the same IP address using fake names will not be considered either. Good luck dear readers and thank you for your continued support of Good Things. Stay tuned for more delicious recipes and interviews, including my conversation with the lovely ladies from the Monday Morning Cooking Club! Coming soon! Thank you all for entering. The competition is now closed and winners will be announced shortly.Wow, choosing winners from these wonderful entries was quite difficult, but Anneka has made her choices (as well as a few extras... so generous! Thank you Anneka). And the winners are: Charmaine, Alison, Elizabeth, Charlie Louie, Zohra, Heather, Kaye and Hema. Thanks again to everyone who entered.
Lizzy
8/5/2014 11:25:46 am
Thanks so much, Liz... BakeClub is right up your alley... she is going places, indeed she has made it in the culinary world. : )
Charmaine
5/5/2014 04:31:17 pm
Baking is one of the first skills I learnt from my Mum. She always baked for beautiful cakes or cookies for Christmas and Chinese New Year. As I grow older, baking becomes therapeutic for me. Core ingredients when baking is love and patience, without these, my creations fail. 5/5/2014 05:53:05 pm
Thanks for letting me get to know Anneka a bit better! I love to bake because I love to share and help. My words aren't always great but a good moist chocolate cake will always brighten someone's day" 5/5/2014 08:45:16 pm
From having talked to you on the phone, you have such an easy manner Lizzy I'm not surprised that you do great interviews :)
Lizzy
8/5/2014 11:22:56 am
Aw, thanks so much Lorraine : ) 6/5/2014 09:33:09 am
This was a delightful read and those biscuits looks just heavenly!
Lizzy
8/5/2014 11:23:14 am
Mary Frances, thank you : ) 6/5/2014 12:35:02 pm
i love the process of baking: the measuring, how the textures change from creamy to curdled to pillowy with each new (wet or dry) ingredient - i love the alchemy of it. 6/5/2014 01:14:15 pm
Liz, this is such a wonderful opportunity for reluctant and novice bakers like me. Would love to get a copy of this book and thanks for the great interview; it was inspiring 6/5/2014 01:30:56 pm
I love to bake not only because I love to eat. I find baking stress-relieving; it's like being able to escape into my own little world. I have one of Anneka's cookbooks and I love it. It's divided into seasons which is really helpful. My favourite recipe is her corn fritters with chilli and ginger and coriander xx
Jenny Andersen
6/5/2014 01:48:41 pm
My Grandma used to bake pumpkin pie, she passed away when I was six which is 49 years ago this year. I took on the mantle of being the family pumpkin pie baker which always brings forth stories from way back when we have out annual family reunion.
Zohra
6/5/2014 04:50:04 pm
Good to see this interview, Lizzie. I wondered what happened to Anneka. I used to read AGT when she was Editor, and bought her books back then. Interesting to hear she's left the publishing world behind.
Lizzy
8/5/2014 11:23:44 am
Hi Zohra, thanks for stopping by... good to hear from you.
Zohra
6/5/2014 04:53:30 pm
My response to the comp: 6/5/2014 06:42:24 pm
What a beautiful lady! Quite inspiring too.
Lizzy
8/5/2014 11:24:01 am
Ela, she is indeed! : )
Ksenja
6/5/2014 11:06:10 pm
I love baking as it requires precise techniques and measurements, but there is magic that happens in oven that makes it so addictive and satisfying. 6/5/2014 11:55:36 pm
Dang you have some amazing connections. What a fantastic interview. What a great read, thanks for sharing Liz. :)
Lizzy
8/5/2014 11:24:20 am
Anna, thank you : )
karina l
7/5/2014 12:39:52 am
I love being able to create something that looks and tastes great for the whole family!
Heather
7/5/2014 01:04:54 am
Baking makes me stop and appreciate the little things in life.
Hi Liz,
Lizzy
8/5/2014 11:24:56 am
Eva, how lovely to hear from you... thank you for stopping by... I'm off to say hello at your place now! : ) 8/5/2014 01:32:57 am
You ask the best questions to provide us with a very entertaining interview. Anneka seems like such a lovely person to talk to.
Vanessa K
13/5/2014 12:05:48 pm
I love baking yes it's true, Thank you so much for introducing us non-Aussie's to Anneka; she sounds like such a fun, smart and generous person but she and I really share the same philosophy: baking starts well before the actual baking. It really is a passionate, emotional, sensual thing to do. Part of it is that the things we bake are not really necessary to a meal, which may be why we get such extra joy and pleasure from baking. And she might be the only person other than myself who considers baking paper a necessary ingredient to have on hand all the time! I will check out her book for sure. And thank you to Anneka for taking the time to answer Liz's questions for us! 14/5/2014 12:54:44 pm
Baking means a house full of lovely smells that draws family members together. Even the teen who gets up late on the weekend is drawn straight to the kitchen with praise for the wonderful aromas that the best ingredients and favorite recipes muster.
Sophy
16/5/2014 12:07:17 am
It was wonderful to read Anneka's comments on the vital emotional dimension of baking. For me, that's exactly what it is, too. Nothing relaxes me more than being able to bake and cook. The relaxation begins long before the actual baking....it's when I start thinking, with pleasure! what I am going to make and then dipping into some of my many cookbooks. And then, when the baking is over, it's time to share the delicious products with family and friends. 16/5/2014 12:52:47 am
Lovely interview Liz! You know I have a torrid affair with cookbooks so how could I not enter ;D
Hema Reddy
16/5/2014 08:49:43 pm
I love baking - I love sharing the fruits of my labour and seeing the smiles and enjoyment that it gives my loved ones and friends! I love how simple ingredients come together to create something decadent, delicious, nourishing and memorable!
Courts
16/5/2014 10:04:23 pm
I love to create and bake. I love to bake for others and see the reaction on their faces when they are enjoying something I have created. Their reaction and comments inspires me to continue to create and bake. Comments are closed.
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Welcome...Üdvözölöm
Cooking and writing have been a lifelong passion. Join me as I share with you my favourite recipes; postcards and morsels from my travels; conversations with cookery writers and chefs; and news on food, cookbooks and cooking. - Liz Posmyk
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NB: I use Australian standard measuring cups and spoons in my recipes.
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