KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — If baking cookies or brownies from scratch seems like a daunting task to you, Craft Kitchen has the perfect solution.
Kylee Lee, 27 came up with a simple way to bake minus the headache with her line of Twist and Bake jars. The jars are packed with the essential ingredients for your favourite desserts plus instructions.
“The idea came about when I noticed that many people are into homemade food and they want to know how it’s done. Twist and Bake is for people to experience baking, spending time with family and friends or to give it as a gift so that others can feel the joys of baking,” said Lee who used to be a graphic designer.
Craft Kitchen was started in August this year as an art and craft business and Twist and Bake was the first line of products Lee introduced to the market.
She also provides personalised gifts such as painted champagne flutes, glasses and tote bags for baby showers, birthday parties and weddings. She also does woodwork, giving new wooden boxes a vintage look.
“Basically, Craft Kitchen is about personalising and giving what people want for special occasions. So far, our most popular product is Twist and Bake,” said Lee.
Lee recalls making 80 jars of Twist and Bake for a customer who wanted to throw a birthday bash for her 8-year-old daughter. These days, kids are more interested in electronics and the customer wanted to encourage baking among her daughter’s friends. It’s so easy that even kids that age can do it.
“I cannot guarantee that it will turn out 100 per cent, though. But it’s not really about whether it turns out good or not but just the experience of baking,” said Lee who’s an avid baker herself.
In October, Craft Kitchen participated in their first ever bazaar at Seek & Keep in Bangsar Shopping Centre. Recently, Craft Kitchen participated in Foodie Fest held in Publika.
Their range of products can be found at BIG, Publika and on weekends, Lee and her boyfriend will be at BIG to explain how Twist and Bake works. You can also find Twist and Bake jars at Carousel, Publika.
For this Christmas season, there are six Twist and Bake recipes to try out: Gingerbread, Chocolate Candy Cane, Oatmeal Raisin, Chocolate Brownie, Strawberry Chocolate Chip and a drink, Holiday Hot Chocolate. Priced reasonably from RM14.90 to RM19.90 per jar, each jar can make up to 40 to 50 pieces of small cookies.
The best part of about Twist and Bake is that you don’t have to follow everything down to a T. “You can make the gingerbread dough into anything, there are no limits. For the brownies, you can also add walnuts and additional ingredients if you like,” said Lee.
Twist and Bake jars do not have any preservatives and the recommended baking and consumption time is within two to three months.
If you find it too sweet, you can reduce the sugar or if you think you need more sugar, you can add in more. Even though everything is in the jar, aspiring bakers are encouraged to feel free to experiment.
“Everything is quite compact in the jar so you have to dig it out,” said Lee. Twist and Bake jars take time to design and Lee has to work out the measurements of each recipe, testing them to see if they work.
It’s also about the aesthetics of the product -- some recipes don’t work because there is a huge chunk of colour like flour, for example. She has to think about what goes in first so that it will work and taste good.
“We’re coming up with new recipes for Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day but we can’t reveal anything yet,” said Lee.
Twist and Bake keeps Lee busy throughout the week as she makes a batch of jars twice a week and delivers them personally around the Klang Valley. She also gets orders for wedding favours and birthday parties so sometimes she would have to up the production. If you purchase three or more jars, delivery is free.
Find out more about Craft Kitchen at: https://www.facebook.com/CraftKitchenMalaysia
This story was first published in Crave in the print edition of The Malay Mail on January 2, 2014.
