Watching baking shows, reading recipes even just looking at someone else’s beautiful bakes seems daunting. Just how did they manage to create such a masterpiece? Where when you try, it ends up as a tricky sticky business? Here is a dozen tips that will make you a better baker.
A few simple must knows along with some practice is all you need. It’s just like playing a sport. You need to practice a bit before you become great. Yes there will be fails, but hey this is what life is about.
I have listed a dozen little know hows that is always handy to know when baking, and will definitely up your game in baking. 😁
A dozen tips that will make you a better baker:
1. Cake tin preparation
Well, there is a reason why I started with this point. This is probably the most important step when following a recipe, and one you should definitely remember to do!! 😉 I can not think of anything worse that the perfect risen cake or cupcakes that ends up getting stuck in the tin.
Well…. hint, hint…. if your cake ever does get stuck, it’s not completely a lost cause. You can always use your stuck cake to make cake pops. Yummy…. I’m sure that the kids will thank you for this.
2. Check the expiration dates
I think about 70% of most baking flops and fails comes from using products that have expired or that is just not that fresh anymore.
The biggest culprits here are baking soda, baking powder,and yeast. These are your raising agents and needless to say if they are not fresh your goods are bound not to rise or rise as well as they should with a fresh product. Whole wheat flour and nuts are also among the culprits for failures.
So a little tip, to increase the shelf life of your flour you can keep it an airtight container stored in your fridge.
Eggs are also a big problem. Eggs are incorporated in your recipes as a binding agent and/or a rising agent. When they are not fresh they do not work as well as they should. Keep your eggs fresh by storing them in your fridge. Only take them out about half an hour before you would like to bake something so that they can reach room temperature.
You can test your eggs to see how fresh they are, before you use them. By the way, my kids love testing eggs. Grab a glass of water. Place your Whole egg in the glass. If you egg sinks to the bottom and lay on their sides they are fresh and good to go. If they float somewhere in the middle of your glass they are still good but not that fresh anymore. When they float to the top, they are off and probably not good to eat.
Otherwise you can always first break eggs one by one open in a separate bowl, give them a sniff, if there is no smell they can be used. Believe me you will clearly see and smell if an egg is off. 🤢
3. Measuring of ingredients
You know there is a reason they created measuring cups, jugs or kitchen scales. It’s kinda important to get your ingredients measured or weighed correctly. Never guess an amount of flour, liquid or any product for that matter to add to your mixture.
If you can weigh a product, rather use this option as you tend to sometimes overload a measuring cup with butter for example.
It’s best to scoop flour out and into a measuring cup until it’s full. Gently tap your measuring cup and use a pallet knife to scrape the excess off.
4. The magic of sifting
Photo by Heather Gill on Unsplash
ALWAYS, but ALWAYS sift your flours, salt, baking powders or baking soda. This way you incorporate air into your flour, making the end result lighter and fluffier. I always first measure my flour for example then I sift it, unless my recipe states something else.
It’s also important to sift icing sugar as this helps removes clumps leaving a creamy clump free butter icing as the end result. The only time you will skip sifting flour will be when you bake brownies or a kind of mud pie, as these are more denser type of cakes and will not need much air in them.
5. Don’t mix up the order
Following a recipe might seem like a silly waste of time, but hear me out.
It’s all about the science of baking. Certain ingredients react differently if they are for example cold or room temperature. Or whether all the ingredients get mixed together or added in one by one in order.
When you look at sponge cakes the end result is a soft crumb. You can achieve this by mixing the butter and sugars to a soft, fluffy and light mixture. Only then do you add your eggs most of the times this will be done one by one, mixing good after each egg. This will then be followed by flour and a liquid.
When you compare this to angel food cakes you will note that there are plenty of egg whites in these cakes. This is mixed until it reaches soft peak stage. Then later folded into your batter. The result? An extremely light and airy cake.
So do yourself a flavor and follow the recipe, the results will not fail you. (Well, most of the times 😉 )
6. Creaming butter and sugar
Most bakers only cream butter and sugar until it looks pale. But looking at the mixture you will note that the texture still seems very gritty.
The correct way to cream butter and sugar is to make sure you mix it a bit longer. It really needs to be very pale and really fluffy. I know this takes a bit longer, but it will definitely make a difference in your end product.
7. Making your own ingredients
There is probably nothing worse than realizing half way in baking a cake that you have ran out of eggs or that you have forgotten to buy buttermilk!
Oh the horror….
Here is a simple few tricks to remember next time you ran out of a product unprepared.
- Egg replacement : 1 tablespoon vinegar mixed with 1 teaspoon of baking soda makes one egg.
- Cake flour : remove 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour from you recipe and replace it with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Sift it together and you are ready to go.
- Buttermilk : Mix 1 tablespoon of lemon juice with 1 cup of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes. This will make 250 ml of buttermilk. Another solution is to replace the buttermilk with plain yogurt so basically 1 cup of yogurt = 1 cup of buttermilk.
8. Coating chocolate chips and fruit
When baking with chocolate chips or any fruit, like raisins or cranberries this extra little step will save your fruit and chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom of your batter.
Simply coat them with some of the flour that you are using in your recipe. This will keep them in place and ensure that they are evenly spread out in your batter.
9. Don’t open that oven door
Very important…. there are certain times in baking that you simply must not open the oven door. Once you put your baked goods in the oven leave it there for at least 5 minutes for cupcakes and at least 15 minutes for cakes. Remember these times might slightly change according to the set temperature of your oven.
The reason is very simple. Once you open the oven door the heat escapes and your oven cools, this will cause your cake not to rise as well as it should or your cake might create a “sinkhole” in the middle.
10. Testing your cake
Before you take your cake or cupcakes out of the oven you need to make sure they are baked through out. The easiest way is to use a cake tester or a simple toothpick. Simply poke the cake, if your toothpick comes out clean you know your cake is done and you can take it out of the oven.
Another way is to lightly press your finger against your cake. If they spring back you know that they are done.
11. Cool of your cake
Let that baked goodies cool off… At room temperature is your best bet. Let them sit on wire racks so that there is enough airflow around the cake. This will prevent it from going soggy.
Only once your bake goods reach room temperature you can ice them. Do not be hasty and ice a hot cake. The icing will simply just melt and slide off.
12. Icing on top
For the final touches on your baked goods, icing is definitely the cherry on top. You can create beautiful looks with different icing types. (Refer to my post about the different icings)
A little tip, spread a bit of butter icing under your cake before you start to decorate it. This will keep your cake from sliding away when you are trying to decorate it.
A good crumb coat will take care of all the loose crumbs. This is useful and I recommend you it, before you spread your next layer of icing on. It just gives your cake a nice crumb free look.
Just remember, baking should always be fun. It’s such great joy to create something and to be able to share your masterpieces with others. There will always be fails. Man, to today I still have a fail every once and awhile. And I love this. I want to know what went wrong so that next time I can improve. Or simply just testing new recipes to see if they are any good or needs a bit of tweaking.
I hope that these dozen tips will help you become a better baker. But remember, At the end of the day you must just enjoy it!
Happy baking!!
