Baker Brigade - Rashmee Gopalan

Rashmee Gopalan

Rashmee Gopalan is known to make the yummiest gooey fudge brownies in town. Huge words of praise? Home Bakers Guild members swear by it, and they ought to know, being big-time foodies. 

Rashmee is the mother of a cute little daughter and son who keep her on her toes. She has been contributing to Parent Circle magazine for a year now. She does a recipe column for the mag and is a consultant for diet-related queries. A post graduate in Dietitics and Food Science, Rashmee is also an advisor and consultant at her husband's pharmaceutical company. The formulae, tasting trials and methods that go into introducing nutraceutical products, are first run by her, and tested out before they are marketed.

Double Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Despite all these activities, she manages to dish out some unbelievably exotic desserts. Her fave Ghirardelli chocolate makes its way into many baking experiments. Below is a pic of a mouthful of a dessert, in more ways than one. This is a brownie tart with a chocolate chip cookie base, infused with Ghirardelli chocolate, drizzled with chocolate ganache, and topped with cranberries. Phew!!

Brownie-based Tart

Rashmee says she is fortunate to have a sister based in the USA, who brings down the best products, colours and equipment that make her job easier. She places a premium on the consistency of the ingredients she uses and hence prefers to source them mostly from abroad.

Although her customized creations cater to the current craze for fondant-based cakes or the still-ruling-the-roost cupcake mania, Rashmee calls herself "a tea cake kinda person." Her personal favourites from all she bakes are fresh cream mocha walnut cakes and coffee walnut muffins. 

Thanks to indulging in delicacies and getting others to do the same via her label SnowFrosting, Rashmee is even more committed to stay physically active every single day. She walks the 3-5 km from school and never misses out on her yoga routine. Having  been a basketball player in college, she knows only too well the importance of health, fitness and discipline. Her goal is to run a marathon. She has already participated in the Dream Runners quarter marathon of 11 kms about two months ago. 

Rashmee's future plans include practising diet and nutrition counselling in a professional capacity, albeit part time. Her ultimate aim is to teach the same at the college level.

Below is a crumbly, buttery tart with choco fudge filling and topped with fresh fruits and cream.

Despite being a previous participant at the Baker Showcase, Rashmee still feels a twinge of nervousness. After 4 hours of marathon baking topped with 1 hour of fear before doors open, Rashmee is enjoying all the excitement. She comes across as a chilled out person and a lot of fun. I am hoping to get lucky this time around and pick up some of her stuff that I've heard so much about. Last time I got to the Showcase just in time to see her cleaned-out table! All sold out in in less than one hour. Her presentation and packaging was super neat and easy, particularly for purchasing individual cupcakes.

Of late, Rashmee has rediscovered the joys of baking bread. Besides the crusty and trusted ole garlic pull-apart buns, her current fave is foccacia bread.

I've had the good fortune to taste her peanut butter paisley bars -- you should see how people's eyes pop out when they bite into one of those! Its almost a divine, blessed, and fulfilling feeling. :D Besides that, she is bringing a whole host of goodies to this Showcase. There will be assorted cupcakes -- some that she calls 'citrussy all the way' or 'citrus burst', nutella hazelnut and mocha walnut flavours.

Assorted Cupcakes

And on that sweet yet citrussy note, I'm signing off to rush to the venue - Crimson Chakra. Hope to be on time before the Baker Showcase flags off. Think I might need a pick-up truck to haul all the yummies back home, while all the baker mummies are left with empty tables but hearts full of joy!

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