These important tips are what will make or break you for your baking success. these tips are standard that everyone should know especially if you want to bake or you are currently driving to be a better baker.
- Don’t overmix your batter
- Do what the recipe says- if the recipe calls for room-temperature ingredients follow it.
- Don’t trust the time recommended in the oven, use it as a guideline. If the cake looks ready. Take it out!
- Fill your pans halfway with batter.
- Read the recipe thoroughly.
When mixing your batter it’s important to not over-mix it but just mix it enough so your ingredients is combined and you get the desired effect that you’re looking for. Over-mixing your batter may cause your cake to fail or flop or not come out with the right consistency meaning it may end up being dense.
It’s important to follow the recipe exactly as it says. So if it calls for room temperature butter. You’re going to follow it and make sure that your butter is at room temperature. Sometimes changing the recipe the slightest can affect the way anything that you’re baking comes out.
The one exception to the rule when it comes to following the recipe is not following how long it states you should be baking your creation in the oven. This can vary by humidity, based on where you’re living or the temperature in your oven, every oven is different.
The key thing here is if it says to bake for 20 minutes it’s still important for you to check whatever you’re baking. If your cake still looks liquidy and the time has reached the suggested time. Keep it in longer! The same for the opposite if the cake was only in the oven for 10 minutes and it looks ready after you checked it, take it out despite what the recipe calls for.
The standard cake is usually 4 inches. So most people would use two pans at 2-inch each or you can use 3-inch pans as well. The key to getting your cake to be a perfect size is to fill your pan halfway so the cake when baking doesn’t overflow in the pan.
We just talked about the five important tips for baking success and now we’re going to continue with talking about tips to remember when baking as well as tips every baker should know especially when starting out.
What Are Some Good Tips To Remember When Baking?
- Be prepared before baking, measuring all ingredients makes the process smoother.
- Weight over volume. Invest in a digital scale.
- Use a thermometer for accuracy while baking
- Treat every ingredient like it’s very important. Reduce using indirect substitutions.
- Mix Baking soda or powder in dry ingredients
Read Through The Recipe
Before starting to mix your recipe and make your specific day Goods always read through the recipe before starting to share that you have everything and you don’t miss any crucial details.
Measuring all ingredients
If you don’t want to constantly stop to measure and combine over and over again, you can make the process smoother by pre-measuring everything before starting so you can just simply just add the ingredients to the bowl.
Another thing to note is learning how to weigh your ingredients in grams versus using volume meaning using a measuring cup to measure. Hear me out I know that’s how most of our ancestry growing up have done it, this is how my mother measured ingredients.
Measuring ingredients by volume could sometimes cause you to have an extra 20 to 30% more than what the recipe calls for. So measuring it by weight helps you be as accurate as possible which leads to having the best-baked good ever.
Temperature
The temperature is something that varies. That’s why it is suggested to adjust accordingly while baking. One of the best things you could do for yourself is to purchase an oven thermometer. They’re very cheap and it can make all the difference in seeing what temperature your oven is really baking at.
You may be baking something at 350F but really it could end up being only 290F which could solve a lot of problems if you were trying to figure out why your cake or pie is taking longer to bake. This is a great way to see what the degree is for whatever you’re baking.
Some recipes may call for you to take out your baked good once it reaches a certain degree.
Ingredients
Treat your ingredients like it is king. You want to treat this part very delicately. If a recipe calls for a specific type of flour—like all-purpose—then use the one specified in your recipe don’t substitute. Because depending on the flour that you use for example has different properties and bakes differently and will be determining factor of how your baked good comes out.
You also want to ensure that if you choose a substitution it’s an equal substitution. Another thing you want to know, there are differences in ingredients depending on the brand and will yield different results.
What Are The 5 Basic Baking Skills?
Here is what every new baker should learn to bake when starting out:
- Caramel
- Buttercream to start
- Tempering chocolate- you want to learn how to control melted chocolate and mold it the way you want.
- Yeasted dough- tested different types of dough
- Cookies- making different textures
Caramel
Caramel is easy to make and is one of the best things to make because you can add it in so many things. You can add it to cakes, cupcakes, and any type of baked goods. Let’s just say it’s a good foundation sweet sauce to know how to make.
Frosting
The frosting is the key to everyone’s heart. Let’s be real when’s the last time you’ve ate a cake without frosting? It’s usually what makes the cake. So learning how to create buttercream is a perfect start. Buttercream is fats, it consists of butter, sugar and egg.
Tempering chocolate
Everyone loves chocolate and this is a great easy thing to learn how to make. because it could be added to a lot of things. Tempering chocolate is melting the chocolate and controlling it once you separate the cocoa butters from the cocoa solids and form it the way you want it.
Yeasted Dough
This is a great way to learn about different doughs and how they react based on when you add yeast. Yeast is what helps the dough rise. Creating yeast dough is how you’ll create different types of bread you grew up eating or bought premade.
This is also a good opportunity for you to test out what happens to the dough when you use different types of temperatures. What happens when you under-knead the dough or over-knead it. Let’s just say it’s a fun way to really get to know dough.
Cookies
Cookies are not only easy to bake but it’s a great opportunity to be able to test out different types of textures. some people like hard cookies or soft cookies. You will cook me learn that there are different ways to treat your cookie dough to get the desired effect that you are looking for.
What 5 Things Affect The Baking Process?
The 5 things that affect the baking process are:
- Baking soda
- Temperature
- Sugar
- Water
- Butter
These 5 things are irreversible and can affect the out of your recipe greatly.
Once you add the ingredients to a recipe it’s hard to come back from it. It’s hard to remove what you just added. In the same way if you bake a cake you can’t turn the cake back into a batter. That’s why you have to be very precise and calculated when you’re adding each and every ingredient. Because each and every ingredient plays a role.
When you add baking soda it releases CO2 and it’s what gives the cake a light fluffy texture. It’s basically responsible for giving the cake the texture everyone loves.
Temperature plays a big role when baking a cake so having a cake in a high-temperature oven determines how firm the cake becomes. It also determines how crusty the outer part of the cake becomes, it may even affect the color and how brown it gets.
Sugar is what determines how sweet the cake is, it also affects the height of the cake. so sometimes putting too much sugar can cause a cake to be flat so that’s why it’s very key to put the right amount of sugar so the cake rises accordingly. It also can give a caramelized type color and can also change the texture.
Water will evaporate and escape from the top and it’s what makes thin baked goods like cookies crunchie.
Butter is one of the best solid fats to use out of all of the fats and gives your dessert a really good flavor. It’s responsible for making the cake moist which helps your dessert have a nice soft texture.
What Are The 9 Basic Techniques Used In Baking?
The 9 basic techniques used in baking are
- Spooning
- Measuring flour
- Whipping
- Creaming
- Stirring
- Folding
- Binding
- Blending
- Kneading
Techniques are highly used when mixing ingredients together such as flour, sugar, butter, milk and cream cheese Etc
Spooning
Is used when measuring by volume. For example, adding flour into a measuring cup and then using a knife or spoon to scrape off any excess flour off the top to ensure the most accurate measurement possible.
Measuring flour
Learning how to measure flour properly can make all the difference. It’s one of those ingredients where it can be very misleading when you measure by volume versus weighing the ingredient. That’s why it’s recommended to weigh flour to have the most accurate measurement for your recipe.
Whipping
Whipping is created by using a whisk or a hand mixer. Egg or whipping cream is used and you would mix until you get a fluffy texture. This also adds volume.
Creaming
Is achieved by using fats. usually starting off with a fat such as butter and sugar. The goal is to mix until it becomes a creamy-like texture.
Stirring
Staring is the simplest method you can use just by using a spoon and stirring in a circular motion combining all the ingredients.
Folding
A rubber spatula is used to fold and combine wet and dry ingredients. The folding motion is putting a spatula under the ingredients and then turning it over and repeating this. It’s also great for scraping the sides and getting every last drop of the batter to ensure the mixer gets all the batter.
Binding
It is adding a liquid such as a fat like butter or egg to a dry mixture to combine it so it holds together. This could be done by hand or using a hand mixer.
Blending
This is done by mixing the ingredients together using your hand mixer, a spoon or you stand mixer. The goal is to make sure all ingredients are mixed very well to get the desired effect you’re looking for.
Kneading
Kneading is the process of mixing together flour, liquid, and other dry ingredients until they form a smooth dough to make bread or pastries. Depending on the ingredients added, you can manipulate dough to achieve a desired texture such as hard or soft exterior.