-Tanisha Saxena (cbedit@imaws.org)

Right from selecting the basic ingredients, mixing them in a bowl or pouring the batter into a heated pan—Baking schools/institutions teach you all. Over the years, baking segment traversed several stages of development and pandemic actually shaped the industry into a better one. There is more of an experimental generation taking the path of baking and realizing the immense potentiality in the near future. And what better than knowing this from the baking schools/institutions who have been constantly trying to prepare great bakers.

Subhashini, owner of Institute of Shinis Culinary Arts, Bangalore, says, “Mostly people are interested in learning basics only. They like to learn Pastries and cupcakes and only few percentage of people actually go for the next level. Subhashini is owner, passionate Baker and recipe developer. She further adds, “I started this Institute in 2010 as a small business, It spread through word of mouth and have taught more than 20k students. In that many of them started their own home baking business. You can learn only recipes in internet but not the actual baking. Baking is a science just like how you learn science in school should learn the basics from the experts and later internet helps in exploring things.

Baking & Food industry growth has always demanded the learning of newer techniques as well as requirements of job opportunities. IBCA has designed programs to suit city and guilds curriculum and suggest passionate baker’s to associate with them to build on their need for manpower. In the year 2000 IBCA started to sow the seeds of bakery education to make more and more aware of what bakery learning is about, with just 2 training programs at first we have more than 30+ training programs in offer, which caters to Professional baking industry as wells as domestic needs of hobby consumption. Manish Gaur, IBCA, explain, “Baking in the recent times have expanded. People are getting involved in the process more than ever before because they have realised that there’s huge demand and commercial business scope in the near future. You see that in the pandemic what we all did was experiment with ingredients trying to innovate and the process for some people revealed that they can do great in the baking products. Some people I meet in class share that baking a cake is therapeutic. It’s their passion. So, people who enroll themselves in courses for learning baking have immense passion and desire to learn new things. Today, entrepreneurs are making good money and have excellent future. Baking as a segment has grown over the years and evolved with time.”

With this the home-based bakers have carved out their niche. Sumeru Creations in Bharat Nagar, Hyderabad is yet another institution of learning baking. They specialise in baking fondant cakes, chocolate bouquets, cookies, tarts, etc. Prasanna, owner shares, “People learnt the value of homemade cakes and demand and value increased for them. Baking is a vast subject with changes into more creative version day by day and there is a lot to learn in it to make best business one should learn basics perfect and make sure every cake they produce should be best in both taste n look wise. She further asserts, “Someone who wants to make their path seriously in baking then sure they need to enroll for few courses and make sure they give their best for the long run successful business.”

Chocoholics, Baking Enthusiasts in Hyderabad have another place which gives an individual ABC to baking. Escapades culinary studio is a fully equipped studio at Kondapur in Hyderabad with facilities to accommodate upto 20 people. If you are an individual, check out our scheduled class calendar to join a group. Arundhati, the brain behind the institution tell us what is it that people are now most interested in learning? “Post pandemic the baking scenario especially amongst the homebaking segment has changed tremendously. People are most experimental now. They are very closely following food trends across the baking sphere especially through social media platforms. So, there’s a lot more exploration of flavours, finishing, elaborate touch, or the baking products that they are looking at is no longer limited to a simple banana bread or a chocolate cake. Even home bakers are attempting to make more elaborate multidimensional products with different flavours and textures. This is a very crucial shift that I have noticed after the pandemic. Another thing is baking with more healthier alternatives, be it healthier flowers or healthier sugars. There are fair number of people who are attempting to baking healthier with alternatives.”

Arundhati goes on to explain, “secondly, The audience has changed. It is a more younger and experimental generation that’s taking interest in baking. Moreover, the exposure to internet and subsequently the international platform in culinary skills has inspired people to take baking more seriously and as a result of which people are now thinking of baking as a career. It’s no longer the case now that one must be a hotelier or apprentice but you can very successfully run a homebaking business from your kitchen. If you want to expand you can go to a cloud kitchen and these are the audiences that we are addressing. People are wanting to learn more and more baking products that can be put on their menus. They want to bring a lot of international bakes which earlier homebakers were not wanting to experiment with. But now they have realised that there’s a market for it. Institutions like myself help in one, upskilling people and make them aware of what the market condition is and what should they do in order to set up a commercial business.”