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Tips for baking cakes

Using recipes to bake cakes is especially important. Baking is a science, a method of cooking by convection. There are a number of processes that occur during baking including melting, gases forming and expanding, sugar dissolving, coagulation, evaporation and caramelisation. With so many processes occurring, it’s important to follow recipes word by word, step by step, to ensure the best result.

If you’re going to include some cake recipes in your repertoire, there are some essential ones which, if make often enough, you may even be able to learn off by heart.

These include chocolate cake, carrot cake, lemon drizzle, coffee and walnut, banana, and Victoria sponge cake. Tried, tested and timeless, if you can master just a couple of these cake recipes, they’ll stand you in good stead. Other ‘individual’ cake recipes include cupcakes, flapjacks, muffins, scones, parkin and macaroons. Of all of these delectable sweet eats, macarons, which are essentially meringues, are probably the trickiest. They’re delicate cakes that often require multiple attempts to get right. The results are worth it though, so persevere.

These top tips will work for most cake recipes:

1. Use good quality ingredients and the right ingredients – if the recipe requires caster sugar, use caster sugar!
2. Measure all ingredients exactly and have everything ready to go before you start so you’re not scrambling around later.
3. Use eggs and butter that have reached room temperature – adding cold eggs to warm butter can cause fat globules to form, and room temperature eggs are easier to whisk.
4. Always butter a baking tin to avoid the mixture sticking.
5. Put your baking tin in the centre of the oven, on the middle shelf, to allow the air to circulate.

For some delicious cake recipes, visit http://www.greatbritishchefs.com