After lots of persuasion, my sister finally relented to take in two very eager and excited bakers-wannabe. This will, insyaAllah, take their baking adventure to another level. I am excited for the boys too because at least, now, they can learn to bake delicious gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan snacks for themselves whenever they need them. This will reduce our hunt for the safest snack out there in the market as we are able to control the ingredients, insyaAllah, without compromising on the taste. Furthermore, we have tried my sister’s bakes and Alhamdulillah, there have been no episodes of reactions so far except smiling faces. 😀

Previously, the only closest thing they had to baking was role-playing. I had always kept one of the kitchen’s drawer empty to store their cooking/baking equipments. The equipments are mostly recycled items that could no longer be used for cooking/baking.

Week 1
The first lesson was their favourite Choc Chip Cookie (GF, NF, V). It is their go-to snack that my sister has been willingly baked for them even at the shortest possible notice, masyaAllah. While precision is extremely important in baking, the process did not look too daunting to attempt it ourselves eventually (because I have not carted my iHerb items yet!).

Umar and Ali were being introduced to different types of ingredients. They were made to explore deeper the function of gluten-free flours. The questions made me realised that while we would love everyone to be attentive to our needs, we should also realised that everything does not revolve around us. After the lesson, I reminded the boys again to be polite always if someone hands them a pack of anything that they cannot eat. It will save everyone the embarrassment or discomfort. What happens after that, noone needs to know. 😀

After their lesson, I was inspired to do a Baking book for them to chart their journey. It took almost two weeks of idealising, printing, cutting, laminating, pasting velcros and binding everything together but it was worth the effort.

The boys covered on the baker’s uniform and hygiene as part of their post-lesson 1. It was refreshing as well for me because a lot of thoughts were put into the creation of the baker’s uniform. It was not something anyone wears to make a statement like “Hey! Look! I am a baker!” No. Alot of safety issues were put in the construction of the baker’s uniform, masyaAllah. As we talked about the hygiene issue, not only that hygiene has been given much emphasis in Islam, it also dawned upon me the responsibility (or amanah) that one has when preparing meals for others.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

Cleanliness is half of faith and al-Hamdu Liliah (Praise be to Allah) fills the scale, and Subhan Allah (Glory be to Allah) and al-Hamdu Liliah (Praise be to Allah) fill upwhat
is between the heavens and the earth, and prayer is a light, and charity is proof (of one’s faith) and endurance is a brightness and the Holy Qur’an is a proof on your behalf or against you. All men go out early in the morning and sell themselves, thereby setting themselves free or destroying themselves.

Two weeks later, we tried to bake our own cookies. Man, it was nearly a nightmare because the batter was way too crumbly to shape. Luckily, one of my sister-in-law (SIL) decided to pay us a visit. She bakes alot and good at it too. After we videocalled my sister twice and tried to rectify our mistakes, my SIL willingly tried to do the manual labour of folding it. She showed us what a cookie batter should looked like (and it wasn’t dough-ey like i thought it should be). That’s what happens when you sit on the couch during lesson time two weeks prior. 😀

After many corrections and revisions, Alhamdulillah, we made some cookies. My kids had already listed out all of the names of their teachers, coaches and family members they wished to share their cookies with, masyaAllah. Alhamdulillah, the cookies were delectable to all of the tastebuds of their cookies’ recipients. 🙂

Happiness doesn’t result from what we get;

But from what we give.

– Ben Carson

Week 2
In week 2, we were baking cupcakes. Yummy! It was my first time realising that cupcakes and muffins are totally different. 😀 Do you know? If you do, leave me a comment below! 😀

Making cupcake is truly an art that I did not appreciate until today. The whisking, mixing and pouring need proper techniques to make fluffy and light cupcakes. Wrong methods might result in creating a dense cupcake. I was surprised that although we were not using eggs, our cupcakes turned out to be quite fluffy. I am grateful that my sister allowed me to sit in and asked her questions (i was not a paid participant :D). The art of baking is truly an ART. MasyaAllah.

The boys did a bit of math today (which is part of the book but I have not covered it yet). YAY! because, now, they would have a little background of it and I do not need to start from ground zero when I decided to approach the topic with them, Alhamdulillah.

Right after that, the boys were all set to play with their cousins, but of course, their Umm, has to be a party pooper. Umar had to write both the ingredients and methods down in his book. He might not appreciate it at that point of time, but I am really sure, it will be very useful for him once this baking gig is over. 🙂

A couple of days later, they did a reflection on the workshop. I was not prepared so a free and easy writing prompt was given. 😀

Week 3
In week 3, we did ondeh–ondeh! It did not require any baking and my sister made it looked extremely easy and it is, masyaAllah!

We snacked on tiny bits of the oh-so-sweet palm sugar and tried our best not to eat all of the ondeh–ondeh after we were done because the kids wanted to bring some ondeh–ondeh home for their dad. MasyaAllah! It was reeeeeeealllllllllly hard to resist reaching out for another ondeh–ondeh.

Barely a few days later, since the ingredients were readily available from our local supermarkets, Alhamdulillah, we made our own ondeh-ondeh. The something that we thought was super easy, turned out quite a challenge for us initially but it was a good practice because now we know that we need to make it less goopy and more pandan leaves! Alhamdulillah.

We picked the best ones for our family members to test-taste them that very night. The kids were extremely happy that they are baking for others, masyAllah. May the Lord preserves their forever-giving hearts, insyaAllah.

Week 4
In week 4, we made a spicy cookie – Ginger Thins. This was quite a change compared to their sweet savouries for the past three weeks. In addition, they used cookie cutters to shape their ginger thins. That was fun for them. I would not say it is their favourite but I will possibly try them again with tweaking some ingredients.

In the book, Healing with the Medicine of the Prophet, ginger was mentioned as well.

Ginger is hot in the second degree and wet in the first degree. It heats the body, helps the digestion process, softens the stomach mildly, helps open the clogs of the liver that are caused by coldness and wetness and helps against the wetness that cause sight impairment, when it is eaten.

In the book, Medical Medium by Anthony William, the author recommended lemon-ginger water to drink first thing in the morning as one of the routines to heal a leaky gut.

SubhanaAllah. We will explore the benefits of different types of spices in the weeks to come insyaAllah! Nature’s wonders indeed!

I hope they will continue to seek knowledge in various forms and used that knowledge to give back to the people around them, insyaAllah.

The meaning of life is to find your gift.

The purpose of life is to give it away.

– Pablo Picasso

You may download the Baking Experience book in pdf format here. May it benefits. 🙂