do you have the right ingredients to be an amazing cakemaker?
TRANSCRIPT
Do You Have the Proper Ingredients to be an Extraordinary Cakemaker?
Does this sound familiar to you? … who is there on this earth doesn’t like devouring desserts and
cakes, cookies and biscuits, or the aroma of recently baked bread floating out from your kitchen?
For myself, I do not have the proper ingredients which cake bakers possess therefore I rely greatly
on good advice and excellent recipe books.
As baking is a precise science it's essential to weigh the ingredients correctly and to keep to the
recipe precisely too. Once you have developed the knack of baking a few things successfully, it's
at this moment that you might move away from the recipe and start adapting them more to your
own tastes.
On the subject of cooking you will discover that baking powder and bicarbonate of soda are very
handy ingredients to always have to hand. They often appear in a lot of cakes and desserts
recipes because they are chemical raising agents. They give muffins, scones, sponges and some
biscuits their light consistency and baking powder enables you to maintain more control when
baking cakes.
The kind of sugar you use to bake desserts and cakes and the like can affect the outcome:
granulated sugar has a coarser crystalline structure and as a result traps most air, caster sugar
produces more even-sized pockets of air and icing sugar creates a flat but very fine cake. It is
possible to use soft, brown, unrefined sugar for cooking as it produces a taste and a texture which
is unique.
Adding baking powder to plain flour separately, in contrast to just using self raising flour, allows
you more control. You don't need too much raising agent in a rich fruit cake, for example.
Heat causes sodium bicarbonate to act as a raising agent by releasing carbon dioxide during
cooking. The production of carbon dioxide starts at temperatures greater than 80 °C. Because the
reaction does not occur at room temperature, mixtures, like cake batter could be permitted to
stand without rising until they’re heated in the oven.
If baking choux pastry it is necessary to use a greased tin never baking parchment or greased
glass because the eclairs could get stuck. Furthermore when the tray is greased put a drop of
water on it and swirl it around before you pipe the pastry out to ensure that you make more steam,
that will assist in making the choux pastry rise more.
Countless books on desserts and cakes can frequently impart handy suggestions when baking
such as using baking parchment to line your tins. This is a non-stick paper which prevents
mixtures sticking to the tin while cooking. This mustn't be confused with greaseproof paper, which
doesn't have non-stick properties.
What if, after all that trouble and energy you put into baking the perfect sponge cake you can’t get
it out of the tin. Well, to be able to take out your beautifully baked cake from your tin simply run a
palette or rounded butter knife round the inside edge of the cake tin and with care turn the cake
out onto a cooling rack.
To remove the cakes without leaving a wire rack mark on the top, position a clean tea towel over
the tin, put your hand onto the tea towel and flip the tin upside down. The cake will then come out
onto your hand and the tea towel, then detach the greaseproof paper and move it from your hand
to the cooling rack.
There are many cooking books available so that you could learn to bake and cook like celebrity
chefs. If you’ve always wanted to bake perfect cakes, it’s time to stop thinking and begin
experimenting! After all, every practiced cake-baker must begin somewhere.