Baking Cake
The Right Tools – The Key to Baking a Cake
Summarized from articles written by Helen Zee
Cake pans come in many varieties, and materials, ranging from simple disposable aluminum to clay bake ware. You may want to consider cake pans with nonstick coatings as your choice of cake baking tools. Nonstick coatings will make for cake pans that easily release the cake and clean up rather simply also. You will thus be able to remove the cake from the cake pan without spoiling the top.
Another innovative type of cake pans has removable bottoms. Like all cake pans, these cake baking tools are available in a variety of sizes and shapes. You should have a few basic sizes of cake pans you will need 8 inch and 9 inch cake pans in your collection of cake baking tools, as well as an 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking dish.
Measuring cups and measuring spoons are another essential element of your collection of cake baking tools. No set of cake baking tools is complete without a rolling pin. If you opt to add an aluminum rolling pin to your cake baking tools, choose one that is small and thin so it will fit in the refrigerator easily.
What set of cake baking tools would be compete without an adequate selection of spatulas? You will also want a selection of other cake baking tools, including a hand held mixer; at least two wire cake racks, and toothpicks for testing to see if your cake is done.
Baking Cakes Tips
Idea from Joseph Devine and Mick Reade
However, to help make your cake be the most successful it can be, here are some important tips to keep in mind and things to avoid:
– Air Bubbles: This is a baker’s worst nightmare. Air bubbles in a cake are the sure sign of an amateur, but really they can happen to anyone. There is a simple way to help prevent this unsightly flaw. When you have your batter all mixed you need to run a knife through it, this releases any trapped air that might have snuck in while you were mixing.
– Shiny Crust: A shiny crust is what all good bakers’ desire. A shiny crust means that when you start icing it will be perfectly smooth. It also means that the inside is well encased so it will be fresher and keep for a longer period of time. To get this amazing crust here is an old trick. Mix one egg and a bit of milk and paint the top of your cake with it before you bake. This will seal in your batter and give you a shiny crust.
– Cracks on Top: Another sign of the beginning baker are cracks on the top of the cake. This usually occurs during the cooling process. So to prevent this you need to do something before you even put that cake in the oven. Add a small package of gelatin when mixing the dry ingredients together, this helps keep all the ingredients sticking together and prevents drying out. But don’t worry adding these will not change how your cake tastes.
– Lumps: One of the best ways to prevent lumps is to sift all your dry ingredients before adding them to the wet ingredient. This will make sure that everything is completely mixed and you will not get chunks of flour, egg or sugar that can detract and taste funny to the eater.
Cooking and Baking Guidelines
1. Good aeration of the sugar, butter and egg batter mixture is essential. For this reason the mixture must not curdle or break. Curdling or breaking is most likely to happen if the eggs are too cold. If this does happen, a small amount of flour should be added before all the eggs are incorporated.
2. All the ingredients should be at the same temperature, about 18C (65F).
3. The shortening must not be melted. If it is, the volume and texture will be below standard.
4. A basic mixture consists of equal weights of shortening, sugar, egg and flour. This may be varied by the introduction of milk and baking powder, which allow an increase in the amount of flour.
5. In all cases the weight of shortening should be more than the weight of either the egg or the sugar. The weight of sugar should not be more than the weight of all liquids.
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