Baking for any occasion is always an enjoyable task, no matter what the celebration.
While most people take a trip to the grocery store to get a standard cake mix or go for a celebration cake for him from Gladys Gourmet Store, why not go the extra mile and make something yourself?
Whether it is for an event like Father’s Day or a birthday, if you want to try your hand at baking for the first time or simply improve your skills, we’ve got you covered. A few baking tips can help you improve your baking skills to create delicious cakes.
Although there may be unique gifts for dad like customised beer mats from Mosaic Board Print that are sure to make him happy, go the extra mile by baking him a cake from scratch. One of our family favourites is this Peach Cobbler with Cake Mix from Chopnotch, try it, it’s delicious!
5 Essential Baking Tips Everyone Should Know
We’ve put together a few cake baking tips that can make the baking part a little easier for you.
Let’s get started!
1. Make Sure The Ingredients Are At Room Temperature
For the batter to mix well, all the ingredients added to it need to be at room temperature. If this doesn’t happen, your batter will not be of the right consistency and you may have to start all over again.
For example, cold butter and soft butter are not the same. Cold butter or melted butter have their own problems when used in the batter. Soft butter on the other hand has the right consistency to mix well with the other ingredients. Similarly, when it comes to eggs, they also need to be at room temperature to mix well with the batter.
Adding something too hot or too cold can mess with the batter’s ingredients and result in something that may not be usable.
2. Always Stick To The Recipe
There are many incredible cake recipes available online and each of them has a specific set of steps that need to be followed. Sticking to those is always important, especially if you’re a baking beginner.
Skipping out steps in the recipe can lead to major differences in the batter that can affect your overall cake texture. Most recipes are designed a particular way for a reason and by adding your changes to that, there’s a chance that it may affect the outcome.
3. Keep Your Ingredients And Equipment Prepared
Baking or any cooking process for that matter requires you to prep your ingredients and keep them ready.
During this process, since certain steps may be time-sensitive, you won’t have enough time to run around the kitchen to find the ingredients that you need. In such cases, prep would always help as you have all that you need within grabbing distance.
Additionally, along with ingredients, you also need to have your equipment ready. Keep them clean and connect them to the power source so that your baking process is more streamlined.
4. Use The Right Pan / Baking Mould
This point cannot be stressed enough, the right pan or mould for your cake batter is essential as it affects the baking temperature and the overall look of your cake.
After the batter, the pan itself is the most important thing you need to take care of. Don’t try to save money by finding a cheap option, always go for non-stick, good-quality bakeware as your cakes will turn out so much better.
Such bakeware and even silicone pans, let you demould your cake much more easily without affecting the outer part of the cake. With so many budget options in the market, try to find something that is of good quality and can make baking easier for you.
5. Always Follow Non-Stick Techniques
While a non-stick pan usually lets your cake slide out easily, there’s a chance that sometimes you may face a bit of a struggle with this. This makes it essential for all bakers to follow certain non-stick techniques that can help them get their cake out of the pan whole and clean.
Here are a few techniques people generally use –
- The traditional butter and dusting – Grease the pan with butter or non-stick cooking spray and then dust it with dry batter ingredients
- A parchment paper lining – Cut the parchment paper to fit your pan and butter and dust the sides of the pan
- Use non-stick baking mats – Silicone mats don’t need greasing and can be used for baking other goodies like pies and cookies
These three simple yet effective techniques ensure your cake gets out clean, without breaking after which you can proceed with the garnishing and decoration part.
To Sum Up…
While our usual cakes in Northampton or whichever place you reside always have a local bakery with the best cakes, making a cake from scratch is always fun and more wholesome. This holds true especially if it’s for an occasion like Father’s Day.
Although there are several baking tips people need to follow, we’ve listed out the main ones that everyone needs to keep in mind to make their baking a little easier.
Happy baking!
