The Singing Cakemaker’s Top Ten List for Successful Cake Baking

To a novice baker this could all look a bit daunting! Hold my hand and allow me to take some of the stress out of baking by sharing with you what I have learnt over the years. These are tips I have learnt from baking as a career and for pleasure. I am passionate about cake! The act of baking and the sharing of my cakes is one of my greatest joys and a joy I would like to inspire in others.

1 USE GOOD QUALITY INGREDIENTS.
Tasty ingredients make tastier cakes, simple! You must also always check that your ingredients are not out of date. Spices can age and lose their pungency if kept in the sun or in your larder for too long. Bicarbonate of Soda and Baking Powder both lose their effectiveness if they are out of date.
To test Baking powder mix 1 tsp of baking powder with ½ cup of hot water.
To Test Bicarbonate of Soda mix ¼ tsp of bicarbonate of soda with 2 teaspoons of vinegar.
Both should fizz. If they don’t, you need a trip to the supermarket!
Test that your eggs are fit for baking by placing in a jug of cold water. If the egg floats it is off!
Never forget the essential ingredient – love! Cakes made with love and music would have to taste better don’t you think!

2 INGREDIENTS SHOULD BE ROOM TEMPERATURE.
Refrigerated products bring the temperature of the cake batter down so that when it enters the oven it slows down the chemical reaction process and can lead to uneven rising. If you are using ingredients normally kept in the fridge, just get them out an hour beforehand. I never refrigerate my eggs.

3 WHEN PREPARING YOUR CAKE HAVE A CLEAN AND ORGANIZED WORKTOP.
If you work in chaos you may end up forgetting to add ingredients or miss out important stages. Assemble all your ingredients and equipment and have your recipe in a good position for regular checking. A recipe stand is a great help.
On the point of hygiene: for obvious reasons you need a clean worktop. Always thoroughly clean it after using raw ingredients before you use it for icing the cake. You should never cross contaminate.

4 PREPARATIONS.
Prepare your tin, adjust oven shelves, preheat oven and prepare any ingredients that call for chopping, mashing, warming etc. Good preparation will mean you can follow the method without having to leave the cake mix halfway through any of its stages. Also you don’t want the cake mix sitting in the tin too long as the raising agents start to activate on contact with liquid.
It is very important to adjust the shelves before you put your cake in the oven. If you do it when the oven is hot there is a risk of getting burnt and the oven temperature will drop. The oven needs to be the correct temperature as specified in the recipe.

5 KNOW YOUR OVEN.
In my gas oven there is a huge difference in quality of bake between the 3rd shelf from the bottom and the 4th shelf, middle top. My cupcakes on the 4th shelf rise too quickly causing peaks and cracks because the oven is hotter at this position. In an electric oven you can often have bake or fan bake, which will affect the temperature, so you will need to adjust it accordingly. A good cookbook writer will include a guide to coordinate your oven with theirs. You need to become friends with your oven and regular baking will help you find the best positions for the best bake. If you consistently get bad results I suggest you check the oven with an oven thermometer to check its thermostat is working ok.

6 ACCURATE MEASURES AND CORRECT INGREDIENTS.
I don’t want to frighten you but baking is a chemical process and very scientific. If ingredients are not accurate or are substituted for ingredients not stated in the recipe you can get yourself into baking trouble. If you are a novice baker follow exactly what is written and you can’t go wrong, assuming it was a good recipe in the first place! You can’t become an experienced baker in one day so you hope whoever wrote the book is a skilled baker and has done all the hard work for you.
Digital scales are the best for measuring ingredients accurately. I am still a fan of the trusty cup measure as not everyone one has fancy scales. In my book I will use both as I don’t want to exclude anyone from the joys of baking. When using cup measures or teaspoons they should always be flattened off unless the recipe calls for something different.
Egg size is also important and usually books state which size eggs were used. I always use free range size 7 AKA medium.
A common mistake is using wrong flours. Label your flour containers clearly and never substitute plain flour for self raising or vice versa. Self raising flour already has raising agents in it and if you add more raising agents you will have an overload and a cake volcano!
Weigh ingredients in order and in advance and I guarantee you will not leave anything out.
Lastly, working in a commercial bakery for 6 years the slogan was - check, check and double check!

7 CORRECT METHODS.
As in point 6, follow the correct method. Your recipe has been written by someone who understands how to bake! It is helpful to have an understanding of general cooking terms - creaming, whipping, simmering, blanching etc. Again most good cookbooks will include this.
The biggest mistake is to not sieve ingredients. Bicarbonate of soda for instance can tend to stay in rock hard lumps if not sieved. I had the dreadful experience of eating a piece of chocolate cake which had a lump of bicarbonate of soda in it. It was one of the foulest things I have ever tasted and really knocked the shine off a chocolate cake experience! Sieving also evenly distributes your ingredients and helps to incorporate air into the flour. Never be tempted not to sieve!

8 DON’T OPEN OVEN DOOR UNNECESSARILY.
Opening the oven door part way through the baking process can cause the cake to collapse. I’m also rather fussy about kitchen doors that open to the outside being shut on cold days. In a cold kitchen the oven has to work harder.

9 USE A CAKE TIMER.
Not rocket science here. We all get busy and can forget what’s in the oven. Set a timer and follow the recipe. Again this is an example of knowing your oven. Mine generally works within a minute or two. And I recommend you always use the shortest cooking time first. Your recipe should give you a guide to tell you what you are looking for when the cake is baked. Well risen, golden, comes away from the tin etc. Only test how is recommended. With some very delicate cakes you cannot test with a cake tester as the cake might collapse! In my experience most cakes can be tested with a cake tester; my favourite tool for testing is a bamboo kebab stick. If you feel the cake needs a little longer, cook in small increments of 3-5mins. I bake a lot and I have a bakers 6th sense and I always trust my nose!

10 REMOVING FROM THE TIN.
You’ve baked your cake, it’s perfect, you could cry with joy and then you take it out of the tin and it snaps in half! Again follow the instructions. Different cakes have different needs once baked.

Enjoy your cake baking and even if it doesn’t come out exactly as you plan.... keep trying, practice makes perfect!