The Baking Tray

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The best home food – from someone else’s kitchen.

When 26-year-old Rebecca Vaz quit her job as a flight attendant in 2008, she knew it was time to go back to the ovens. Armed with baking tools picked up on trips abroad and a familiarity with dessert presentation from her flights to Paris, she started The Baking Tray and has been taking orders for desserts and juices since July 2009.

Among other items, she makes elaborate theme-based cakes. She once created an icing figure of a diver among coral for an 11-year-old deep-sea diver. When another customer wanted to celebrate the birthday of her rabbit, Vaz topped a regular carrot cake with a maple sugar bunny eying a carrot. Christened the “24 Karrot Kake” by her husband, the salsa dancer and actor Ashwin Mushran, it’s now a best seller as is her hazelnut chocolate meringue pie, with a layer of chocolate mousse hidden under the meringue.

Vaz’s cakes taste like mummy’s best. They’re light and mildly tart, as with her tangerine twist cake. She also sells vegetarian marzipan, a cake with pears and apples or peaches and cherries, and animal-shaped peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. While she owes her skills to Bandra baking legend Hayley D’Souza, who has schooled generations of dessert makers, Vaz also tries out recipes borrowed from family, friends and the internet. One experiment resulted in her signature “Walmond Brownie” (with walnuts and almonds), another in a healthy banana bread. “It’s made of oats, semolina, wholewheat, bananas, eggs and honey,” she explained. The bread is surprisingly soft and flavourful and she recommends topping it up with a honey-lemon sauce. Vaz will introduce photo cakes soon – cakes with a photo printed on the frosting with edible ink. It sounds like the perky baker has another 24-carat bestseller on her tray. Saumya Ancheri

Call or e-mail bakingtray.india@gmail.com to order. Cookies Rs 350 for 500 gm, cakes from Rs 350 for 900 gm, pies from Rs 450, mango juice Rs 200 for a litre. Orders need to be placed at least a day in advance.

Source : Time Out Mumbai

Delectable Walmond Brownies from The Baking Tray

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The Baking Tray

Rebecca Vaz’s comfort cupcakes draw inspiration from the women in her life -- grandma, mum and an old lady down the street who shared her prized baking recipes. The five years she spent as a flight attendant allowed her to roam the world in pursuit of cake, giving her enough "research material" to go full time on frosting in April 2009. "Try the Mr Lava Lava Cupcake," suggests Vaz, promising that their chocolate-filled centres will more than make up for the corny name.

Tel. . Starts at Rs 50 per cupcake, minimum order of a dozen.