Secrets of confectionery craftsmanship: the story of Alex Lel from Vitebsk

Alex Lel, a home pastry chef from Vitebsk, has been creating real delicious masterpieces for almost 25 years and has been blogging on the Internet. With his own hands, he creates incredibly beautiful cakes, meringue rolls, cakes and cheesecakes. The use of jelly layers, light creams, interesting fillings – for example, with the addition of matcha tea – is his thing... You can't watch his blog hungry – there are so many delicious things!

The cakes look great even in the cut – the layers are lined up as if under a ruler, and the colorful intersperses of fruits emphasize the airy texture of the creams. In the design, the author uses natural fruits and berries, glazes of various flavors, flowers made of rice and waffle paper – everything can be eaten without fear of "picking up" artificial colors and flavors, because the postulate on which Alex Lel relies is naturalness in everything.

So who is he, an innovator pastry chef?

Alexander Lyalikov (this is the real name of the hero of the publication) works ... as a boiler room operator at one of the enterprises of the city. And he devotes exclusively his free time to the confectionery business.

– Was there really no desire to work professionally in the catering industry?

– This is my dream, that's why I am improving, learning new things, following modern technologies and materials, bringing my fantasies to life and blogging – perhaps the owner of a cafe or restaurant will appreciate my findings and will want to try these products. So far, I'm not making money on this, but just experimenting and treating friends and family.

– I wonder where your hobby originates from?

– Like many people – from childhood. He was born in a large family, was the fifth and last child. Mom was a great cook, she always had amazing pastries.

I had to help her in the kitchen from a young age. I especially liked working with the test. In the difficult 1990s, he graduated from vocational school-154 of instrument engineering. At a crucial historical moment, it was difficult to get a job in the country. And in order to take time and improve my vitality, I began to do what I especially loved – confectionery business. At that time there was no Internet, I collected clippings from newspapers, magazines and... baked my cakes. It became an outlet, I learned a lot. I remember how I wanted to make the same flowers from buttercream that I saw on store cakes. At a time of scarcity and a meager assortment, it was difficult. But I did not give up and managed to ensure that my cream roses were in no way inferior in beauty to the decorations of professional confectioners. In order to find a job with a suitable schedule that would leave time for hobbies, he received a specialty as a boiler plant machinist. Having changed several enterprises, probably ironically I ended up at the Vitba confectionery factory. Yes, an amateur pastry chef works in the boiler room of a confectionery factory. I always bring my friends a new cake and treat them, many ask them to bake for a family celebration, so the taste of my baking is well known at my native enterprise.

It was those notebooks with clippings that laid a solid foundation in my confectionery skills. There were many mistakes, but the failures only inspired me. Since then, I have improved my work with all types of dough: yeast, puff pastry, and shortbread. My favorite thing is baking biscuits. I recently gave my cake to a professional pastry chef in Moscow for tasting. And he praised the biscuit. In the confectionery art, imagination and fantasy are important: you need to imagine the taste that will give a combination of certain ingredients, beautifully decorate the product. And at the same time, keep a balance: the cake should not be cloying, and its components should emphasize each other's taste.

– Tell us about your author's findings and successful experiments.

– Jelly layers of freshly squeezed (not packaged!) I use natural juices in cakes, alternating with cream ones. They refresh the taste, thanks to them, the appearance of the dessert in the section is simply amazing. Jelly layers are ideally combined with mousse cakes.

One of the author's recipes is a mousse cake with matcha tea and cherry confit. Its base has a pleasant fresh herbaceous taste. After this experiment, I fell in love with using spicy herbs – they add a touch of freshness. That's how I came up with the Mojito mint cake.

The author's findings of the pastry chef:

 Yogurt creams are low-calorie, moderately sweet, and have an airy texture. It is better to cook them not on an open fire, but in a water bath, then

they turn out tender and weightless.

• The jam recipe contains only natural berries and fruits. Creams have a natural density, pectin is not needed for thickening.

• Innovative biscuit technology. Beat some of the ingredients separately, and then gently combine them with a spatula.

• Sponge cake impregnations tested by the master as a result of experiments: vanilla, orange (using zest), coffee-cognac, cherry, "Three

milks" and others.

• Rice paper flowers. They turn out to be alive! But this is a complex art, rice paper is capricious. Natural dyes are also preferable in coloring.

The amateur pastry chef's notebook contains a lot of ideas, plans, and ideas. It is a pity that the happiness of trying his products so far belongs only to a narrow circle of his close people. I want to believe that his talent will be noticed, and one day his name may become a brand of confectionery art in our city. The main thing is to believe in your dream!

Photo from the archive of Alexander Lyalikov.

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