Missing the dough.

Finding something that gives one pleasure is a good thing. Some people find happiness in carrying out certain activities which might be quite different from the activities that others derive happiness from but the common factor here is that everyone likes whatever activity they do, whenever they do it.

For me, I do a lot of activities for my entertainment. I sing, I dance, I read books, I watch movies and I also play soft games like Ludo, Scrabble and snake & ladder. But my most enjoyable activity is connected to the kitchen. That activity that I derive pleasure from and to which I haven't done for a long time now is baking.

”Surprised?” well don't be. I learned to bake in 2017 after I moved down from Surulere to the Badagry axis of Lagos State. Learning how to bake cakes and other confectioneries was not initially out of enjoyment but out of necessity. I wanted to open my own cake and confectionery shop to keep myself occupied since I was new to the area. I wanted to make a profitable business out of it

As I learnt all that I needed, I realized that this was an activity that I had a flair for and was very adept at it. It didn't take me long to grab the rudiments of baking 101 and before long, I was made the class governor and administrator. I was in charge of organizing practicals along with my classmates and delegating certain tasks to everyone. I enjoyed every bit of time spent learning how to bake.

After six months of training, I and my classmates were certified to go into the world and bake 😁. I actually thought that it would be a simple matter of having a good visible space and some pots or pans but I didn't count the cost of purchasing other materials like oven and cake making equipment.

When I finally did my market survey on the cost of baking equipment, my heart fell into the pit of my stomach. I was not prepared to hear almost 4 million naira for only equipment o. Baking ingredients were not included. I knew then that I would not be able to start up that business like I had planned and so, the baking was only done at home during weekends.

Things continued this way until I finally landed a teaching job with a private establishment and my weekends gradually became choked till date. You might be wondering what I mean by weekends became choked.

My weekends became choked because it is during that time that I would need to prepare my lesson note. I would have to prepare and write down the notes for my class in preparation for a new week or I'll get a query which might then lead to a salary deduction, which I would not want.

For a while, I baked during the holiday period for myself and my family's delight but recently since 2021, after the Coronavirus pandemic, I knew that I had to ”up” my game so as to make enough income and so I connected with owners of extra mural classes which holds on weekends.

This move further jammed my weekends leaving little time for rest not to talk of baking. Baking has gradually been forgotten in my home. Currently all that reminds us are the pictures I took while I was learning how to bake and more.

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Another discouraging factor is connected to the price of baking items like flour, sugar, vegetable oil, butter and all that. The prices have quadrupled over the years that many bakers no longer have snacks of fifty naira for little kids.

To bake a small cake now costs twenty-five thousand naira (#25,000).

I am grateful to have learnt such a wonderful skill and maybe I'll take out time, probably a day or two to simply bask in the glory of mixing dough and batter together sometime…. this year. I know it has been a long time since I baked, I only hope that I wouldn't have forgotten how to do so altogether 😁.

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Thank you all for reading. This is my response to the #Marchinleo initiative for day 2.

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Images used are mine from when I waa learning how to bake.