Cake Baking Tips : Guest Post from Sadaf of Chef in Frame

Today's guest post comes to you from Sadaf F K who blogs over at Chef in Frame. There are some pretty good Pakistani food blogs / sites out there, Chef in Frame is one of them. I just recently came across Sadaf and her wonderful site. There are many mouth watering recipes on her site like these Tempted brownie sandwiches , Tomato sauce stuffed rolls , White chocolate mini tarts , and an interesting Desi baking method . So, enjoy this guest post and visit her site to check out some of her delicious recipes :)

***********************************************

I'm Sadaf and I do passionately blog over at Chef in Frame . Where I write about recipes and foods, mostly. sometimes tips from my personal experience. I'm a baking addict, but occasionally do enjoy cooking too. I love Ice-cream, Brownies, Frosted Cakes, Berries & Yogurt.. and I do wear Frame. :)

Image source : freepik

Talking of Recipes and Foods, cooking always considered as a hot topic. Cooking in the kitchen with hot stove, pot, oil, onion.. everything 'hot' that let you sweat easily while stirring your gravy in caramelize of onion that surround you in kitchen. That's not only... Cutting the onions also make you cry and burns your eyes. I know there's bunch of non-onions cooking around, but let me tease you. ;) Problem is Asian can't live without onions. (that's truth, not teasing) They use it in their gravy (salan) to Pilao to Biryani to Korma to Kababs... In short it is the part and parcel of their cooking.

Ever wonder, what's the theory of Baking is? Such a Calm-Style-of-Cooking.. (as I use to say) It's a Cool topic to discuss and I always enjoy to talk on baking Brownies, cakes, cookies, bread, pizza, baked rolls.. (caution: list is so long)

Today, here at the sweet blog of Ambreen. I'm talking on Cake baking tips and tricks, that I learned from my past experience baking bunch of cakes for family events. I've face number of downfalls in baking and learned while never giving up.

There's is so many yet so interesting little little things to consider while baking your favorite and lovely Cake at home. If you fail in getting a step to prepare your batter, the outcome of it won't be perfect as it should be.
So, what's these little little things are?

Note: I'm not professional baker. The list I'm going to disclose is my personal experience that improve my vision toward baking and its theory. (yes, little little) I hope it will be useful for you in Home Baking things.

Temperature matters :
Always preheat the oven, at the same temperature the recipe call for. Starting the heat initially helps the cake to get right temperature (heat) at the right time. However some recipes call for two temperatures like, Preheat the oven at X degrees. Reduce the temperature to X degrees while setting cake pan into the oven. Where as some recipe never said to preheat the oven. If you don't preheat your oven, your cake won't rise because it will get heat lately. Its the first and foremost part of Cake baking and help to rise and shine your homemade cake.

Starting Steps :
After setting you temperature, another step is to read recipe carefully and follow the recipe to its root. You never know what little mistake can change your Cake outcome. And always prepare your baking pan first. Grease it, place baking paper on the surface and grease the paper too. Using baking paper (also known as butter paper or parchment paper) make flexible to remove the cake out of pan. If you haven't any, there's is another method around. Grease the pan and sprinkle the flour all over surface, so that cake won't stuck to the pan after baked. But baking paper are best to use. Always keep-in-stock in your kitchen, just in case. :)

Baking Ingredients :
The ingredients, you are using for making you ever beautiful cake; flour, sugar, soda, egg, butter, milk, cocoa.. all the items from wet to dry, should be at room temperature. Why? Because, the chill eggs, cool flour sugar milk can make your cake so dense and dough like.

Baking Equipments :
Now you have to look over your equipments that you are using in baking the cake, like; mixing bowl, beater, spoon, measuring cups.. they all should be clean in two ways. First there shouldn't be any dust in it and secondly there shouldn't be any liquid in it. (i.e, water) Sometimes we are in hurry wash the bowl and start making batter in it, without rinsing it out. This is also a big mistake. Because liquid in equipments transfer to your ingredients and won't allow eggs and butter to fluffed and creamed, which is essential to sponge the cake.

Dry ingredients & its Involvement :
Come over last important part in making cake batter. The Dry ingredients, like; flour, baking powder or soda should be add in last through Sifter. (or sift them together at first step and set aside for use in last)
And do not over-mix it. Over mixing the flour in liquid, produce gluten that make the cake tough and elastic. Just gently mix them with wooden spoon or spatula to incorporated. A bit of lumps are okay.

After baking cares :
When your cake is ready and out of the oven. Do not remove from pan immediately. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes in you kitchen. Which allow the cake to rest after getting too heat. If your cake stuck to the pan, (it happens when you over-baked it) use hot knife to remove the cake from pan. Dip knife into hot water and rinse it out with kitchen towel. Slightly knock off the sides of pan to remove carefully.

Basic Frosting guide :
Now come to beautiful part, Frosting the Cake. There are many kind of frosting out there and it almost make difficult to choose one for you. (if you love to lick cream out of the cake, like me) So I'm not gonna give you the whole list, just guide to do frosting. First, let your cake completely cool after removing from pan. Second, if want to make your cake moist for long time. Spray "sugar water" over the cake layers before frosting. It help to let your cake stay fresh for one day or so. Like the cake, there are also rules for chill ingredients and room temperature ingredients. If you are making 7 minutes frosting, that include 'eggs white'. Always use fresh eggs of room temperature, otherwise it won't double up and fluffed to become frosting. Using butter in frosting, always call for room temperature. While making Fresh Cream frosting, use chilled cream otherwise it won't get the spreadable consistency. Use offset spatula to frost the cake, it make easy to smooth the edges.

That's it! Isn't it interesting? Hope you now can bake your own Birthday Cake at home easily by following these little little steps. Now I'm off to make gravy for dinner (caramelize scent.. eww) you enjoy your Baking things! :)

Hugs,
Sadaf F K

***********************************************

Thank you Sadaf for sharing all these great cake baking tips, I'm sure these tips will be helpful for new bakers. You can also find Sadaf on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Pinterest.


Thank you for stopping by. Hope you enjoy this post!!!