What this ultimately means is that if a recipe isn't easy, or reliable it will never see the light of day again so that's why most of the recipes I put on here you will find are actually very good to try if you havn't got much experience.
It also means I have a lot of toys in my kitchen to make life easier for myself, I'm also a massive cake pan hoarder which I will go into in another post.
One of the things I get asked the most is about how I get my cakes to taste/look good. Honestly there really isn't much magic to it but having a basic understanding about what you're actually doing helps I think.
Baking is science with food, now that sounds scary but actually what it means is that your cakes will behave in a very reliable way if treated the same all the time - and if something goes wrong then there is usually a fixable reason rather than 'not being any good at it'. That means that for most baking anyone can make most things; it's just knowing the 'science' behind why it might go wrong and how to avoid it.
This is a really good place to explain some essential bits of science:-
http://www.culinate.com/articles/features/baking_chemistry
I will be honest though; where I often fall down is my lack of patience - its why you wont find overly complicated foods on my blog!
So a basic cake recipe and why it works!
This will make enough for 24 cupcakes, or enough to fill x2 8" round cake pans.
If you want 12 cupcakes simply halve the recipe.
I also work in metric as I am from the UK, so if you need to convert anything to imperial/cups its easy enough to just google conversion changes.
Printable version
The Ingredients:
Do yourself a favour - Life is MUCH easier if you measure your ingredients out before you start especially if it's a recipe you havn't done before. (I'm being a bit hypocritical here as I don't always do this myself, but I often regret not doing it!)225g of fat - buttermilk spread (Butterlicious/Utterly Butterly etc) OR margarine (Stork - spreadable) OR softened butter (I will explain the differences a bit later on)
225g Caster Sugar
225g Self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp desired flavour extract (vanilla)
4 large eggs
Choosing your fat:
I mentioned before I was a cheapskate, this means I tend to use Stork spreadable margarine for making most of my cakes, sometimes I will use a spreadable buttermilk spread like Utterly Butterly (or the supermarkets own variation of it) if that's all I have in the fridge. Both produce good reliable results straight from the fridge.
If it's a special occasion I will use butter, this MUST be soft, but NOT melted (see the science link above) I tend to microwave from the fridge for about 20secs to get it to the right temperature.
The Method:
Pre-heat oven to 200°C (fan assisted)Cream the fat and sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy looking.
Add the eggs, baking powder and flavour extract and whisk until combined.
Add half the flour and gently fold in with a spoon.
Add the rest of the flour, gently fold in with a spoon.
Pour into cupcake tray lined with paper cupcake cases, or round tins lined with baking parchment.
Gently smooth the tops flat with the back of the spoon used.
Cook cupcakes for 12mins, or round tins for 17min.
Check if cooked by skewering the cake with a wooden cocktail stick - if it comes out clean then it is cooked, if not then return to oven for a few more mins.
Simple Buttercream style frosting:
I tend to do my frosting by eye so it's not so specific but as a guide line to frost the above amounts:
100g fat (I tend to use 50g-ish of Buttermilk spread, and 50g-ish of vegetable shortening (Trex) for a good stable frosting that wont melt as quickly in a warm room, and keeps the shape of piping but is also still buttery, if that is not a concern then all softened butter (as above) is probably they best tasting)
For piping swirls on top of cupcakes a general rule of thumb is 1 heaped table spoon of icing sugar per cupcake plus 1 tblsp 'for the bag'.
To ice the middle and top of the above cake 12heaped tablespoons of icing sugar will probably be about right add milk or more icing sugar to adjust accordingly.
If you make some leave a comment and let me know how you get on!
Why it Works:
Measuring out your ingredients first: -This might mean you end up with more washing up, but if your new to baking it takes some of the stress out of the mixing, it also helps reduce the risk of measuring something out wrong if you're rushing. It's in more complicated recipes that this really helps out, things like meringues for example - The French even have a name for it - Mise en place.
Pre-heating the oven: -
The air bubbles in your cake are really important, you need to look after them as they are what make your cakes nice and fluffy. If your Oven isn't pre-heated you can't guarantee how the bubbles will react, they may collapse leaving you with a dense cake and you wont know how long to bake your cakes in the oven for so you may end up with an under cooked cake which collapses when you take it out.
Creaming the sugar and fat together: -
This is what creates the air pockets in your cake so this stage is really important, make sure they are properly combined. It goes paler when they are fluffed up because of the bubbles of air so this helps give you a clue if you've whisked them up enough.
Caster sugar has the ideal balance between sharp sugar crystals to make air bubbles, and small enough crystals to create a light smooth cake batter.
You can use Granulated in an emergency but the resulting cake may not be as light.
Adding the egg, baking powder and flavouring: -
When you add the egg you are adding moisture, a binding agent and extra air, the baking powder reacts with the moisture to make the existing air bubbles expand. Adding the flavouring at this stage ensures that it is evenly distributed through the cake mix. Always use Extract not flavouring for the best taste, something's arn't worth skimping on and the flavouring is one of them.
There is a whole range of different flavour extracts to choose from, Vanilla is the staple, but Orange and Lemon are also good basic options - you are only limited by the flavours you have access to.
Folding in the flour: -
This stage is where you have to be careful, if you don't fold it enough then you will have lumps, over mix and you will lose the air bubbles you have carefully put in, while stretching the gluten in the flour and you will end up with a dense, flat, chewy cake. Be gentle.
Gently smoothing over the cop of the batter mix: -
This helps ensure that the cake mix will rise evenly, again be gentle you don't want to squeeze all the air out, just smooth over the top.
Don't take the cake out early: -
If you open the oven door too early, the change in air temperature is likely to cause the air bubbles in your cake to de-stabilise and your cake will sink.
Tweaking the recipe for different dietary needs
Gluten Free:The good news is that there are now lots of companies who have studied the science of replacing flour for you, simply replace the normal self raising flour with a suitable Gluten Free mix, I recommend Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour. I always get good results from a cake with it.
Bear in mind that the Gluten Free mixes are usually moisture thirsty, I always add 4 tblsp of Milk at the same time as adding the eggs, to the basic cake mix to ensure a moist fluffy cake.
Dairy Free:
Again this is a fairly simple change, replace the fat with a dairy free spread. Just be careful as not all the 'vegetable spreads' are lactose free - make sure you read the label. I recommend 'Pure - Sunflower' Spread for good results.
Combining both of the above for a diary free, gluten free cake works absolutely fine.
Sugar Free:
Sugar plays quite an important role in the cake adding structure as well as sweetness so you do have to be cautious if you are replacing the sugar with an artifical sweetner, I have used Splenda as a direct replacement and they have come out ok.
Please be aware that there are possible health concerns surrounding artificial sweetners though, so maybe the better option would be to have a smaller piece and skip on the buttercream rather than replacing the sugar with sweetners!
Vegan:
Egg free cakes are a whole different ball game, egg's do so much in a cake batter that it is not easy to do a simple 'swap'. They are however perfectly possibly, and I recommend the book 'Vegan cupcakes take over the world' to anyone who is going to bake more than one vegan cake (their cookie book is also brilliant).
Here is their basic vanilla cake recipe written out on another website - I have used this recipe lots of times and they always come out well.
The author has a blog which is also worth looking at.
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