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Baking queen Mubina Maqbool, who has been dishing out goodies across the kingdom for almost a decade, is now whipping up a cook book so that she can share her tips and tricks and signature recipes.
The Indian mother-of-two who lives in West Riffa started on her culinary journey nine years ago when she founded her dessert business Melting Moments.
She is now busy preserving her delicious discoveries into a 130-page publication called All Things Sweet with the aim of helping novice bakers succeed in dishing up their own delights.
Mubina said: “The aim of this book is to turn the most reluctant novice into the keenest baker and to help practicing bakers step up their game.
“The cookbook I’m aiming to publish is the culmination of all my baking experiences - learning through numerous trials and errors, coupled with the right approach, has helped in my quest to create moist, delicious bakes with great texture.
“It’s been an exciting journey trying new cake flavours, tasting from the best patisseries and recreating them in my own kitchen with reckless abandonment.”
She has come across many friends and acquaintances who, despite having a penchant for baking, have been too scared to step into the arena for fear of not rising to the occasion.
“This got me into conducting baking workshops and writing this book,” explained Mubina. “Baking is fun and easy but can be undeniably daunting for a few. I hope this book helps them.”
Each cake, tart or dessert is accompanied by professional images by artistic food stylist and popular food photographer Ali Taleb and the chapters include step-by-step recipes for breakfasts, tea-time treats and sweets for celebrations and soirees.
According to Mubina, easy to understand tables on metric and imperial measurements and an oven temperature conversion table, will guide readers to achieve their desired results, alongside ‘tips and tricks’.
“This book aims at teaching you everything you need to know and provide you with the surefire way to get it perfect every time,” she added. “The bakes will delight even the most discriminating baking connoisseur and help light up festive occasions.
“I want people to learn how to bake at home to promote healthy eating - bakes and desserts made from scratch without any artificial flavours or preservatives.”
Mubina, who holds a Master’s degree in human resources and marketing and worked in that field for a few years, took a break from that career path to establish her baking business.
It all started when Mubina was looking for a guitar-shaped cake for her son, Mohammed Rahil, who at the time was celebrating his third birthday. She said: “We went out looking for one but didn’t find anything that we liked so I decided to bake and design one myself.”
Everyone at his party was impressed by its design and taste and soon people started requesting that she make them cakes for parties and special occasions too. News quickly passed through word-of-mouth and Melting Moments was born.
She even baked a cake for a member of Bahrain’s royal family and recently created a themed delight for Bahrain TV’s Eid celebratory show.
Mubina has always loved baking and challenging herself ever since she was a little girl. At the age of eight she would flip through cook books and experiment with recipes to bake and share with her loved ones.
Her signature desserts are made of chocolate, red velvet, tres leche and carrot. She draws inspiration from other entrepreneurs as well as her family, including her husband Dr Maqbool, a chief resident in the cardio-thoracic department at MKCC, BDF, her daughter Mehnaz, 15, and son, Mohammed, now aged 11, both British School of Bahrain students.
She said: “My family is very encouraging. My kids keep egging me on to try new recipes and I will do anything to put big grins on their faces.”
Mubina is putting the finishing touches to her cook book and is hoping to find a publisher, although she may decide on a self-publishing route. Her aim is to launch it by September. It is currently being designed by art expert Zahra Salman and should be available at popular bookstores in Bahrain, as well as online.
For details, find out more on her social media Instagram account @meltingmomentss.
