Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
Mehnaz can you please teach a basic cake with nice frosting like you did for v-day.. just one nice one and tell how we can alternate the ingredients for different kind of cakes.. Your cakes are just so good. My husband loves cakes and mine are always the biggest flop. Show decoration too. I think the way you decorate your cake makes a huge difference too.
I say you teach us a nice 8 inch with ingredients and their measurements.. decoration and all..
Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
The easiest and best plain sponge recipe that I was taught at school - and has never failed me to date - is to weigh the eggs, however many you want to use depending on the size of the cake needed (before you crack them) and then use the exact same weight of flour, butter and sugar. So easy to remember and works a treat :)
Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
interesting tip Brit Chick! I might give it a whirl soon.
Some valuable resources that i really like:
Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours
and any books by Rose Levy such as the Cake Bible and HEavenly cakes. Her books are just full of tips to bake good cakes.
Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
Ira, you shouldn't be taking your cakes out as soon as they come out of the oven. let them sit for 15 minutes and then remove them from the pan. if you take them out right away, they will break as they'll be too soft. any longer than 15 minutes and you might have issues unless you are using wax paper liners.
basics to have in addition to those already mentioned would be:
- vanilla essence- either liquid or powder form
- wax paper - this is extremely important for making sure your cakes always come out of their pans nicely and easily. i've tried butter, pam, buttering and then flouring the pans and nothing resolves things better than wax paper. it is worth every penny, including if you buy it from the dollar store.
- a set of measuring cups and spoons- these do not have to be expesive and can be bought from the dollar store too but because baking is such an exact science of liquid and dry ingredients, its very important to have these in your kitchen
- a rolling pin. basically, if you can make roti, you can roll out pastry.
as ira mentioned previously, let me just emphasize again, baking is a science. you MUST follow recipes exactly as mentioned until you get to the point where you can safely exchange one ingredient for another.
i second Dorie Greenspan's book. I LOVE that book and it has pretty easy to follow recipes for the moderate to expert baker. i started off making simple box mix cakes until i got the hang of it, and then i moved on to cakes from scratch and other desserts.
Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
I put a lot of shortening all over my pan and then put a lot of flour into it before pouring the mixture in. I don't just sprinkle flour on . Shake the pan around so the flour goes everywhere. You will be able to see if you missed any spots. This keeps the cake from sticking and they slide out easily once I take it out the oven.
I think it depends a lot on the recipe and ingredients you use. I'm sure it makes a difference. For the one I use, this process seems to work.
As my nani says, I make a "tahkat wala" cake so it's quite "mazboot". :D
Masi, the temperature you are baking on is too high and you are over cooking the cake.
I find this happens a lot in Gas ovens. I have a gas oven and this is what was happening to my cakes.
I have an electric oven. But yes I tend to set the temp towards the higher end..
Also some times** if baking pan is not of proper size **it makes cake to rise in the middle and split. So make sure that you use the correct size of pan as called out in the recipe and of course heat is also a factor.
Guilty ! :o
oh and another thing that can essentially destroy your cakes .... you MUST use fresh ingredients. Don't take out 5 month old flour and use it. Toss it or use it else where ... you have to use fresh ingredients cause it can really change the consistency of your cake.
Guilty :o
Apparently, the dark pans (baker's secret) are really bad quality. They tend to overcook cakes.
Guilty :o
Thanks for your replies Mehnaz and sumal also everyone else for your tips..keep 'em coming :D
Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
Here is a tip I learnt...your cake will never ever stick to the bottom... take equal parts butter, flour and shortening. Mix them up and apply on your cake pan. Also you can keep this mixture in the fridge ...it keeps forever... Guaranteed to work. :) a tip from professional cake bakers.
Could you explain this further??? You line the pan with wax paper before you pour the mixture??? Does the hot oven have an adverse effect on the paper though??? 
Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
Excellent Thread
Please share a nice n simple recipe for a basic cake?
Falafel, mostly cake recipes are in the recipe portal , check that one out , you will find some fantastic ones there…
… I guess we will stick to learning the baking process in this thread … so it doesnt get derailed into a recipe thread 
PR - Yes you got it! You line the pan with the wax paper. And then pour the mixture in. The temperature of the oven will not have any effect on the wax paper or greaseproof paper (whichever one you use) But make make sure you lightly oil the tin so wax paper can stick to the pan otherwise the strips of paper will overlap whilst you pour the mixture ← already happened to me!
Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
what a great idea for a thread. how do you get icing to look smooth on a cake, is there a special kind?
I have documented how I bake a cake. I hope it helps. I made a orange and almond cake (dad’s favourite) but you could use any fruit, flavouring, juices etc.
Ingredients
Place margarine, oil and sugar in a bowl.
Beat together the margarine, oil and sugar till it is a pale yellow and it is glossy.
Beat in two eggs.
Add orange zest, juice and almonds. At this point you can add anything you desire- cocoa powder and chocolate for a chocolate cake, dried fruit etc.
Add 100g of the flour. Fold it in. Do not beat it in. You will add air pockets to the cake and you do not want that.
Add the remaining 100g flour.
The cake mix is ready.
Transfer to a baking tin. If using almonds as decoration, do not poke them into the cake mixture, just place them on the surface.
After baking for 40 mins, at 180 deg C, ths was the end result.
The last 5-10 mins are critical. Make sure you keep checking the cake with a skewer. You will know its done if you place the skewer in and once removed it is clean and has no remnants of cake mix on it.
Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
Dildi 
.. its so perfectly awesome that i just want to adopt you 
Re: Baking - The Beginners Guide
Dildi, that looks great! :k: Looks delicoius. 
I went to the bookstore at lunch time to check out the books that Ira mentioned. They are fantastic … if you are serious about baking, those books are worth investing in … or maybe you should borrow them from the library first and try out a few recipes.
exactly. so you lightly butter your pan, base and sides. then you put the pan on top of a sheet of wax paper, trace the shape around the bottom of the pan with a pencil, cut out the wax paper and simply place it in the bottom of the pan. the butter will make it stick to the bottom so you can easily pour your batter in.
it has no effect on the mixture or the pan and its a guaranteed, no fuss, no muss cake removal method!
i hear that and i’ve done exactly that and it never seems to work for me 
over and over i’ve been there and done it and then cried because my cake’s stuck to the pan haha so now i just completely rely on my wax paper technique.
i’m sure the recipe has a lot to do with it too. have you tried it with different cake recipes or just the one?
if you use buttercream icing and the best recipe i’ve worked with so far is the Wilton one - Buttercream Icing - then one of the tips is to use dip your spatula in a bowl of hot water, pat it dry on a paper towel and then smooth your icing with that. the warmth of the blade will melt the butter in the icing and give you a smoother finish.
another trick is the paper towel technique.
watch this video- Cake Decorating - A Secret to Smoothing Icing - MonkeySee
its very easy to do but i didn’t have the right paper towel so it left behind a slight pattern- d’oh.
unfortunately, i think Viva is a brand only available in the States. boo!
Thanks so much guys 
I actually baked a cake today (box mix though 
) … and I used the wax paper trick… worked liked a charm. Thanks so much!!! xoxo
Can I just say that I LUV LUV this thread??? 
I’ve tried it with 3 different cake recipes and it works for me. I hope I’m not jinxing myself … I have to make a big one this weekend for my cousin’s 16th birthday. fingers crossed
I do believe it has to do with the consistency of the ingredients and … quite simply, the mood of the cake. Cakes can have attitude as well.
I’ll post pics for the others … Inshallah, it will turn out good.