The Golden Rules of Baking Cakes ...

The things you ought to know when it comes to baking cakes ... This is something that I should have written at the very beginning.You can have the perfect recipe and baking time but if you fudge up a few fundamentals all can go wrong. I was prompted to write this post when a friend was informing me about her mother's delight at the burnt overspill from The Perfect Bake's Banana Bread that she was kindly making for her father's birthday. This small oversight was entirely my fault, for which I apologise. However, follow these golden rules, along with The Perfect Bake recipes & you shall not fail!

The Golden Rules of Baking Cakes

1. When I say pre-heat, you need to give it at least 20 minutes: if you don't, your cooking time won't be correct and you could end up with a under baked cake

2. Room temperature: try and get your butter & eggs (if you keep them in the fridge) out before you bake. Trust me, it makes it easier to cream the butter and the eggs disperse through the cake mixture better and provide a more even bake 

3. Its all about your mixture: when you mix together your ingredients do so with care. Over mixing cake knocks all the air out of it & over works the flour resulting in a dense, poorly risen cake, not ideal! So when it comes to cakes:

• Cream your butter well
• When you add in your sugar, eggs & flour stir enough just so they combine, do not excessively mix

4. To sift or not to sift ... It isn't the end of the world if you don't sift your flour when making a cake. It is just beneficial two-fold: makes it easier to stir out the lumps of flour when combining & if you have old flour that's been sitting in your cupboard it is possible that you will have flour bugs (weevils).

5. Two-thirds full ... Never more, never less! When you fill a tin or cupcake case with mixture always fill it two thirds full. Over fill and your cake will spill over whilst baking creating a great mess and a flat cupcake or cake, under fill & your cake will dry out when baking and be over cooked 

6. Always lightly grease your tin: you will be incredibly stressed trying to get it out of the tin when baked if you don't!

7. Ready or not ... Check your cake at the stated time with a wooden skewer, if it comes out clean your cake is done. If there is still cake mixture on it give it another 2 minutes

So, follow these Golden Rules & The Perfect Bake cake recipes, you should have a fab cake ready for demolition!

Success..

As the saying goes 'The proof is in the pudding' ... Look at these stunning chocolate brownies! Baked to perfection by my dear friend Pete using the recipe from this blog; with the idyllic backdrop of Toulon, it does make them look pretty tempting to say the least!

Hopefully this snippet will tempt you to bake the Brownies from The Perfect Bake...

p.s. When asked by Pete "Does it matter if I use caster sugar rather than granulated sugar?" My response was not particularly, let me tell you why ...

Brownie Fact: It is the white sugar in Brownies that creates the crackly top too them. Use brown sugar and they won't have quite the same top to them. Some people think, the darker the sugar, the moister the brownie; this is not true, it is the fat in the chocolate and butter that make them moist!

Don't break the bank ...

So, I feel that some of you may need some encouragement to actually pick up that spoon & starting creating you're own perfect bakes! Some people can be put off by the idea of creating the perfect bake at home; instead they will head to their local supermarket of choice and buy ready made treats as it seems easier and cheaper. I can tell you now, although it may be easier, it will most definitely not be as tasty and surprisingly, it can be cheaper to bake at home. 

As I trundle around the supermarket on my weekly food trip, usually half asleep, in a world of my own or eyeing up what other people have in their trolleys (always amusing), I find myself slipping in the odd extra baking ingredient to top up my supplies ... I have news for you; it doesn't cost the earth! 

There are some basic ingredients you should always have on hand (with these you can satisfy any sweet craving with the odd added extra):

• Self-Raising Flour (1.5kg - 50p)
• Butter or Margarine (butter 250g - £1.20 or margarine 500g - £1)
• Eggs (12 woodland eggs - £2)
• Sugar (granulated 1kg - 99p or caster 1kg - £1.99)

My tip - its o.k. to go value. We do it in our normal food shop, so why not with baking products. Once it is cooked it will taste a million dollars! For example, the white chocolate in my brownies ... basics chocolate 35p for a 100g bar; like I said, doesn't have to cost the earth! 

From this, I hope you can only conclude that when you are thinking of buying that shop made birthday cake or pack of cookies, that you think about it long and hard and pluck up the courage to buy some baking store basics & buy the supplies that will keep you baking for a while!