The Hutong is proud to welcome master pastry chef and baker Anna Chan to Beijing next month.
Anna is a third generation Chinese residing in Singapore, has 12 years of baking experience and loves making baking simple and enjoyable for home-bakers.
After a stint as an English high school teacher, she went on to open a baking school called Sugar Inc Baking Workshops and was its head chef-instructor for 7 years.
Her work as a pastry chef has been featured in Singapore in print and on television, namely the Straits Times and on Mediacorp Channel 8 cooking programs. She is the author of a mini recipe English-Chinese recipe book called Gorgeous Cupcakes for the Homebaker.
Aside from baking cakes and pastries, she has also trained in New York to make bread, and in Singapore for cake-decorating. Now as a mom of two, the cheerful and down-to-earth home-baker believes in a fuss-free approach to baking, and in using fresh, quality ingredients to achieve beautiful delicious cakes and pastries that are fit to grace important occasions and yet not at all difficult to achieve at home. Her past and current work can be viewed on her website.
We sat down with Anna to learn more about her baking philosophy.
The Hutong: How did you get started baking?
Anna: I started with the cheesecake recipe at the back of the Philadelphia cream cheese box! Slowly I began experimenting and practising and eventually got up the courage to bake for friends and customers. A few years later I had my baking studio where I wrote recipes and taught baking classes, and it became a full time job.
The Hutong: Who was your best teacher?
Anna: My mom. She bakes but she doesn’t give me any answers in baking, she only asks me questions and that motivated me to find out about the art and science of baking on my own.
The Hutong: What is “Asian” about “Asian Baking?”
Anna: For modern Asian-style western cakes, we use locally available ingredients to substitute such as coconut milk or pandan leaves or red or black sugar, or durian and mango for instance.
These are ingredients we can easily get from the fresh markets and this changes the taste and textures of our cakes.
Also, we use less butter, typically, and use vegetable oil a lot. To keep the cakes light-textured, we depend more on beating the eggs to a foam.
Traditional Asian cakes involve more steaming or frying and quite often uses wheat alternatives such as rice flour and tapioca. Also there is a tendency to prefer vegetable oil over butter even in baking because butter doesn’t feature much in Asian cuisine.
The Hutong: What is your favorite pastry to eat, your favorite pastry to make, and your favorite pastry to teach?
Anna: I love to eat chiffon cakes, I love making shortcrust pastry and I love teaching uncomplicated baking recipes of all kinds.
The Hutong: What is your “baking philosophy”?
Anna: I like to employ straightforward baking techniques, and a minimal but tasteful presentation with colors on the plate to tempt the palate.
The Hutong: Where do you find culinary inspiration?
Anna: From magazines, the internet and books. There are a lot of wonderful cooks and bakers on social media and they are so creative.
Come join Anna on a baking extravaganza of epic proportions in September at The Hutong. She will demystify the baking process, sharing its secrets and making it easy to learn. You will sift, beat, cream and whip your way to luscious and stunning homemade cakes and pastries. In eight classes over 2 weeks, you will learn how to bring the best of east and west to your pantry, one class at a time.
Thursday Sept 4th 19:00 – 22:00 Pandan Chiffon Cake
Friday Sept 5th 10:30 – 13:30 Hokkaido cupcakes
Saturday Sept 6th 14:00 – 17:00 Baked moon cakes
Sunday Sept 7th 14:00 – 17:00 Chilled moon cakes
Tuesday Sept 9th 19:00 – 22:00 Tofu cheese cake
Wednesday Sept 10th 10:30 – 13:30 Cinnamon Rolls
Thursday Sept 11th 19:00 – 22:00 Pineapple tarts
Saturday Sept 13th 14:00 – 17:00 Fondant Cupcakes
Sunday Sept 14th 14:00 – 17:00 Red Velvet Cake
Each class will cost 340 RMB, 280 RMB for members – or you can sign up for any 4 classes in the series, for just 1000 RMB.
