The Business of Baking

Soon after we arrived in Bangkok to stay with our Karen friends (who are part of the displaced/refugee subculture from Burma), Dee ascertained that I could bake. She led us to a large, oil-stained, cockroach-infested box containing a small portable oven which she had bought a couple of years ago. She had made a couple of attempts at baking, but after a series of failures gave up and the box was adopted by the kitchen's less-than-savoury inhabitants.

We were set to work. Cake number 1: Banana. There were no cake tins, so we improvised by cooking in the trays that came with the oven – wide, flat cakes. Banana cake – a double mix – was baked and eaten in record time. Spurred on by this initial success, Dee gave us a new mission.

It was decided that we would bake cakes for church on Sunday, in case it was someone's birthday – two cakes, this time with icing. So on Saturday we baked pineapple cake and butter cake (double mixes each, naturally). Dee and Pipi eyed off the sticky, golden, sweet-smelling pineapple cake (and stole a sneaky corner nibble) only for a short while before deciding that we definitely didn't need both for church and so we should probably eat one today. This attempt evoked even stronger approval.. except for the fact that not everyone got two pieces (there are about 25 people living in the house).

The next day Dee enquired in the service as to whether it was anyone's birthday. It wasn't, so we had unbirthday cake instead.

The next week, Dee decided that we would share the wonders of cake with the children at Sangkla Buri. Christoph packed the oven up in its box, we packed the ute, and away we went. We arrived in Sangkla that evening to discover that Christoph had packed the oven but forgotten to actually put it in the car. Oops. No cake for the kids this time.

On the weekend, back in Bangkok, we made double pineapple cake, double potato bake – people kept coming into the kitchen for this one, and seeing the cheese melting on top, enquired hopefully “pizza?”. “not pizza, potato”, we said. I don't think it really cleared things up much. We rounded off the weekend with a batch of butterscotch pudding. It was practically inhaled by the crew.

The next week we took the oven to make cake for the kids at Plang Ha. We were almost there when Blair suddenly realised that no one had remembered to put the trays in! He had seen them sitting there, and told someone else to do it but they had also forgotten.. Dee was so unimpressed, it was quite funny. Usually she's far too busy laughing to ever be annoyed, but cake is a very serious business. Dee didn't want to disappoint the kids, so we improvised. We took a break from house-building, bought some semi-flat-bottomed metal bowls from the village store, and balanced them on a wire BBQ rack, which was balanced on a ceramic bowl between the elements. 6 vaguely dome-shaped pineapple cakes later, I think we managed to fill everyone.

Our final baking adventure was on the Sunday afternoon. Dee asked if we wanted to bless the people of Ratchaburi, where we were heading that night. How can you say no to that?!?! She summoned some support, and I wrote a ridiculous shopping list and whizzed away on the motorbike with Blair. We came back, juggling 30 eggs, 30 bananas, several bags of sugar and flour, and a huge tub of butter.

Next Christoph with his superior mixing powers was summoned. With Dee supervising, and Georgie, Christoph and I adding and mixing, we powered 4 double-sized cakes through in record time. Then we balanced them on laps in the cab and the back of the ute for the 1 ½ hour ride. Once there, after the service, they fed us a ridiculously large dinner, and we fed them cake. Everyone was satisfied.