These Essential Tips Will Help You Bake Great Cakes
When you can buy a cake at any bakery or supermarket, why would you decide to make your own? Lots of reasons! Perhaps you’re looking to recreate a favorite childhood birthday cake your mom used to make. Or, maybe you’ve gotten inspired by reality cooking competitions and imagine applying one day. Maybe someone’s asked you to bring a cake and you’re totally panicked. Whatever the reason you’re headed into the kitchen, it’s possible that you might be bringing a little bit of stress along for the ride. There’s no need to worry: baking a cake is as simple as following a set of instructions. Below, we’re sharing some tips for baking cakes to help reduce any worries. Once you’ve successfully baked it, it’s time to decorate! Check out our tips for making cake frosting so much easier.
Before you even get started, it’s helpful to do simple things like check that you have the ingredients, gather your tools together, and of course, set aside some time to bake the cake.
THESE 3 SIMPLE TIPS ARE THE KEYS TO CAKE BAKING SUCCESS
Get a digital scale
Though adjusting to baking with a digital scale (rather than measuring cups and spoons) might seem like a huge adjustment, it’s worth your while. Not only does a digital scale help you get the precision necessary for bakery-worthy cakes (and other baked goods like cookies, doughnuts, pies…basically everything!), it will actually reduce the amount of dishes you need to do. (If that’s not a good enough reason, we don’t know what is.) To use the scale, place your mixing bowl on the scale and press the “tare” or “zero” button. Then, add an ingredient to the desired weight. Press the “tare” or “zero” button again, and add the next ingredient. Continue until you’ve measured everything that goes together. Of course, if you’re worried about over-pouring, you can weigh the ingredients into separate bowls and then combine them as you would normally.
Don’t get too creative with the ingredients (at least not at first)
A big reason people don’t have success with baking recipes is because they make substitutions that affect the outcome of the recipe. Unlike cooking, which can be more flexible, baking is really a science, which means that changing ingredients (for example, from honey to maple syrup, or brown sugar to white sugar) actually changes the chemistry of the dough or batter. Instead, stick to what the recipe suggests, at least for your first go-round. If you love experimenting, try swapping one ingredient at a time in subsequent iterations. That way, you can figure out what the consequences of each ingredient choice are.
Practice a bit of patience
Patience is a virtue, or so they say. It certainly is important for good cake baking. When you open the oven door too frequently, it can cause the temperature to dip, resulting in an uneven bake. Steady temperature is crucial for certain chemical reactions to take place, so either look through the window, or if you don’t have one to see what’s going on, try to wait until over half of the baking time is done before peeking. As the cakes get close to done, wait until you can see the indicators in the recipe. This might be something like “until the cake is golden brown and begins to pull away from the sides” or “until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached.” For well-written recipes, these are clues the developer has included to help you get the best results. Due to variations in ovens, ingredients, and even the environment in your kitchen, the timing might change. That’s why being patient and waiting until the right indicator happens is helpful. Finally! Let the cake cool fully before cutting into it so it’s sturdier and won’t melt any frosting.
Excited to jump in? Why not start with this Lemon Almond Cake with Raspberries & Whipped Cream, which you can make in your 8” Hybrid Fry Pan? Or, take the savory cake route and bake Pepper Jack Skillet Cornbread in your 4.5QT Hybrid Deep Sauté Pan.
