Eric Joe Munene | Making Dough

• Did you have any baking experience?  Is it true that all you need to start a bakery are measuring cups and spoons? 

Yes and No 

As mentioned above, I had lots of experience practising. I bought baking equipment with my very first salary (an oven), when my colleagues were buying electronics like big screen TVs, CD and DVD players. I had an oven even before I had seats in my bachelor pad back then. 

A good serious bakery needs lots more equipment than your brief list ...what will you bake your cakes in? How will you mix your ingredients? How about ten ingredients like flour, sugar etc? 

Like any baker, I’m still stocking my bakery; it’s a continuous endeavour …I can’t ever resist buying baking equipment where ever I find it. Some are still in their packaging and am yet to start using them.  

• What does your typical day look like? Any burnt pastries or are they all even bakes? 

Hectic but I have learnt to plan my bakes around my flying job since being on the Great Kenyan Bake Off where time management was a key skill required to execute a perfect bake in the very limited time period allotted in the tent. 

Of course, I have had burnt and sunken cakes and that requires starting over  

•   The Great Kenyan Bake-Off show was.... 

A phenomenal master class and a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn one on one from industry greats, namely Chef Kieran and Myra Kivuvani Ndungu, proprietor of the Kenya franchise Le Grenier a Pain international French Bakery 

I didn’t win overall but I came from the whole experience richer from my interactions with the judges, my fellow contestants and most of the people I met on the show ended up becoming very good friends. 

• What has been your most interesting experience? Have you ever dropped a cake? 

Hehehe this one is for the arrived. Yes, it happened mid-way between the house and the car, and my only consolation was there was enough time to quickly assemble a replacement! The people at the event couldn’t tell the difference. I also have had transporters smudge or break cakes as they were delivering to clients, and I have had it sent back for repairs or I have arrived on the scene to rescue the day 

• What was your last ‘aha ‘moment?  

When I discovered that locally milled flour like millet, sorghum (mtama) and /or cassava can be used as inexpensive alternative ingredients for gluten free baking. 

As a result of this discovery, I now make a mean millet chocolate cake and wimbi (millet) digestive cookies not to mention a red velvet cake whose main ingredients are beetroot and red sorghum.