‘IT geek’ loves lockdown baking

Tom Siegenthaler has been feeding the members of his bubble since the lockdown began.

It started with a batch of blackberry jam, and continued onto lemon meringue pie, blackberry meringue pie, madeira cake, ginger crunch cookies and shortbread.

‘‘It reminds me of my childhood I guess. Mum was a professional baker,’’ Siegenthaler said.

‘‘Also it’s productive, you get something useful out of it.

‘‘I enjoy reading as well, but that doesn’t have the same level of satisfaction at the end of it.’’

The 57-year-old wasn’t totally new to baking, but had ‘‘definitely increased output’’ since the lockdown began.

‘‘I used to feel I wasn’t doing enough, but now I could be doing too much.

‘‘Although, my flatmates are yet to complain.’’

There were lots of things Siegenthaler enjoyed about baking.

‘‘There’s not a single three-digit ingredient in here,’’ he said, quoting the numbers which signify colouring and preservatives.

He also enjoyed the ‘‘very tactile’’ element of baking.

‘‘The very first thing I do before I start baking . . . always wash my hands.’’

That was regardless of being in a coronavirus pandemic, he said.

He took one of two directions when deciding what to cook.

‘‘I have a bunch of favourites or I see what’s new and different and have a go at making that.

‘‘The Edmonds book is my bible.’’ He liked taking a recipe and then tweaking it. ‘‘Even the mistakes always turn out good.

‘‘The people I dish it up to all say ‘it’s wonderful, it’s delicious’, and I’m sitting in the background critiquing it.

‘‘Once you’ve been doing it for a while, you can see where you’ve made a mistake, even if other people can’t tell.’’