Practical tips for baking cakes

Baking cakes can sometimes be a little tricky for beginners. Usually, we need to know certain unwritten rules that are good to follow, as these are omitted from recipes because they are taken for granted. However, they can be the key to making a successful cake, so this time we''ve put together a few baking tips for you. Some of them might be a little too basic for the more experienced, but I believe that even the most experienced will find them useful.

Unwritten rules that are good to follow, because they are omitted from the recipes because they are taken for granted.

Ingredients for baking cakes

• The baking ingredients should always be at room temperature. We know that this advice is repeated over and over again, but it is very important for cakes.
• Do you ever wonder how to tell if eggs are fresh or not? Dip them in water and if they sink, they are fresh. If they float on the water, then they are definitely not suitable for your cake.
• If you want to experiment a little with a recipe you already know, you can replace the milk with yoghurt or sour cream and the differences in texture and taste will be obvious.
• Always use an electronic scale to help you measure, as this will give the most accurate weight of your ingredients.
• When the yolk and white need to be separated, cold eggs will be the easiest way to do this, and if the whites need to be foamed, room temperature eggs will be the easiest way to do this.

Mixing

• Always mix all the dry and especially all the liquid ingredients separately before mixing them together.
• When mixing the sugar and butter together, stir until the mixture is pale yellow and slightly puffed. This will take about 5 minutes.
• When adding the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients, be careful not to over-mix the mixture, so set your mixer to medium speed.
• Sugar has a big influence on the colour and also the texture of our dough. If there is too much sugar, the dough will be too brown, and if there is too little sugar, the dough will be too light and hard.
• It is a good idea to whisk the eggs before adding them to the dough.
• A pinch of salt will bring out the flavour of your confection.
• When adding more than one flavouring to the mixture, always start with vanilla, as it brings out most of the flavours.

Baking

• Always allow the oven to come up to temperature before placing the mixture in the oven. You can also use an additional oven thermometer, which will measure the temperature much more accurately than the one from the oven.
• The cake should not be placed on the edge of the oven, as there is a good chance that it will not bake evenly.
• After 20 minutes of baking, turn the cake over. Do not open the oven before this, as this lets in cold air.
• Watch the baking time of your cake. A cake that is baked too long will, of course, be too dry. You can find tips on how to check whether your cakes are baked on our website.

Toppings and icings

• Once your cake dough has cooled, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer. Only after 30 minutes take it out and start cutting, filling, etc.
• Make sure that the filo is applied evenly between the layers of your cake.
• When applying the icing, use a cake spatula to help apply the icing evenly and smoothly.