Like any other skill, baking takes practice- It's during this process, you learn the best baking tricks that work for you. Every Tuesday, I will share a new tip or trick that I've found works for me and makes my sweet treats that much more satisfying!
TUESDAY, JUNE 21,2022
Hello all, I launched my blog on Sunday, June 19, 2022, my BD 😉, and this is the first Tip Tuesday I am posting. I hope these tips and tricks help you improve your baking skills.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
This might be one of the essential tips for baking a cake, but one of the most important ones.
HOW TO PREPARE THE CAKE PAN:
Our goal here is to prevent the cake from sticking to the pan and breaking into pieces. There are two ways to do this;
- My favorite method :D. Generously grease the bottom and side of the pan with butter or spray oil. Then lightly sprinkle flour on the bottom and sides. Shake off the excess flour. The flour coating creates a barrier between the pan and the cake batter and allows the cake to fall off the pan easily.
- The other method is to lightly oil spry the bottom and side of the pan. Then cover the bottom with a round piece of parchment paper. In this method, the parchment paper plays the role of the barrier and pushes the cake to slide off the pan. Please see the video below!
Tip Tuesday on June 28/2022
How to have soft and fluffy cake sides
Ever since I have been baking, I am using CAKE STRIPS to have the perfect soft and fluffy cake sides. These strips are made of a fireproof and heatproof fabric that does not burn in the oven.
- Soak the strips in a bowl of warm water before you start baking the cake. This will make the strips soft and humid.
- After you prepare the cake pan with flour or parchment paper, wrap the strip around the pan like a belt.
- The humidity in the strip keeps the side of the cake cool, and prevents the cake from drying.
See this video;
Tip Tuesday On July 5/2022
How to prepare the piping bag
- We need buttercream, a tall glass or vase, a plastic piping bag, and a piping tip. In this video, I am using Wilton M1, But any piping bag of your choice will be fine. Wilton M1 tip is very versatile and can create a lot of different piping designs.
- Put the piping tip inside the plastic bag and cut the end of the bag to the bottom of the star shape of the tip.
- Twist the plastic bag from the end just above the tip and place the bag inside the tall glass. Tip side down.
- Turn the other end of the bag inside out to cover the glass.
- Fill up the bag with buttercream. Turn the bag up and remove it from the glass.
- Push the buttercream down towards the tip, twist the wide side of the bag to avoid buttercream running from the other side, and start piping. See this video.
Tip Tuesday On July 12/2022
How To Use Nuts In Baking
As a rule of thumb, always, always roast the nuts you want to use in your baking. This includes hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, etc.
Toasting the nuts before adding them to a recipe can improve the flavor and texture of the baked goods. Toasting nuts brings the natural oils out, intensifying the rich nutty aroma, creating a deeper color, and making the nuts crunchier.
Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and place them in the oven and set the oven at 250°F. Roast the nuts for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them. Nuts burn very quickly.
Tip Tuesday July 19/2022
How To make the cupcake cavity
Have you ever wanted to fill up the center of the cupcakes with some sort of fillings or buttercream, and it did not go as smoothly as you wanted? I know how messy it could be!!
Here, I will show you to make a hole in the center of cupcakes with no struggle!
What you will need is a round piping tip, Round Pipping Tip
Push the tip from the small side, into the center of the cupcake. This will cut through the crumb and will pull it out. Then fill up the cavity with the desired filling. See below pictures!
Tip Tuesday, July 26/2022
How To Stabilize the parchment paper on the baking sheet
Place the sized parchment paper on the baking sheet, and using four small magnets, secure the paper on the baking sheet. You can purchase the magnets from Dollar Stores. Please see the below pictures.
Tip Tuesday, Aug 2/2022
How To Measure The Flour
When you press the measuring cup into the flour bag and pull it out, the cup gets packed with the flour. And you end up with much more flour than what the recipe calls for.
Instead, spoon the flour into the cup and level off the top with the back of a knife. This will give you an accurately measured flour. One cup of flour should weigh about 125-130 grams. Please watch this video.
Tip Tuesday, Aug 9/2022
Room Temperature Ingredient
I cannot emphasize how important it is to have ROOM TEMPERATURE ingredients. Ingredients such as butter and eggs straight out of the fridge can impact your baked item in a negative way.
- Cold butter will not mix with other ingredients such as sugar very well, and the creamy texture that we are looking for will not be achieved. If you are in a rush and do not have time to bring the butter to room temperature, no worries! Cube the butter, place it in the microwave, and heat it for 15 seconds. Test it after each round, and if it is soft to room temperature softness, it is ready.
- Egg plays a binding role in baked goods and also egg white has leavening properties. If the egg is cold right out of the fridge, it will not bond the ingredient as it should. Also, it won't help the batter rise well. No time to bring the egg to room temperature? No problem. Place the eggs in a bowl of lukewarm water for just a few minutes, and this will make the eggs warmer to the point that can be incorporated into the batter.
Tip Tuesday, Aug 16/2022
Baking Prep
Before starting your baking project, it is very important to know what your game plan is! I mean; what you are going to make, what kind of ingredients you need, what the oven temperature should be, etc.
Be sure to measure all your ingredients beforehand and lay them out on the counter. Trust me... you are going to appreciate this tip 🙂
Always preheat your oven to the temperature that the recipe suggests. Preheating the oven makes a huge difference in the result.
Tip Tuesday, August 23/2022
To bring your butter to room temperature faster, cut it into small cubes. This will increase the surface that is in contact with the room temperature.
Tip Tuesday, Aug 30/2022
After adding the flour to the batter, do not use the mixer to blend the flour. Use a rubber spatula to gently mix in the flour. This will prevent the batter from overmixing and deflating the batter.
Tip Tuesday, Sept 6/2022
- When a recipe calls for chopped chocolate, make sure to use good quality chocolate. There is a reason that some recipes call for chopped chocolate vs chocolate chips.
- Chocolate chips have additives that make them stay solid whereas chocolate bars tend to melt once in the oven. This makes the texture of the baked goods more gooey and moist.
- It is best to use a mix of chocolate chips and chopped chocolate bars in brownies, cookies, and chocolate loaves, for additional flavor and improved texture.
Tip Tuesday, Sept 13/2022
Q: Why we oil spray the pan and line it with the parchment paper, and oil spray the paper again?
A: We grease the paper for the paper to stick to the pan and grease the paper again to prevent the batter from sticking to the paper. This helps the finished baked goods be released easier.
Tip Tuesday. Sept 20/2022
- To have a clean-cut bar, chill the bar pan before cutting. This will solidify the ingredients such as butter and makes cutting easier.
- Start cutting the bars in half from the middle, Wipe the knife with a clean paper towel.
- Cut each half in half again, and wipe the knife each time before placing the knife into the bars.
Tip Tuesday, Sept 27,2022
Chocolate Ganache
- Ganache is made of hot cream and chocolate. There are three main types of ganache: Dark chocolate, Milk chocolate, and White chocolate. Dark chocolate contains more cocoa mass compared to white or milk chocolate ganache. This difference determines the amount of cream we need to make the ganache.
- Dark chocolate ganache: chocolate to Cream....... 1-1
- Milk chocolate ganache: chocolate to Cream........1.5-1
- White chocolate ganache: Chocolate to cream...... 2-1
- The difference between ganache and frosting is. frosting is usually made with cocoa powder, milk, butter and powdered sugar while ganache is made with chocolate and heavy cream. Fudge frosting tends to be sweeter than ganache.
Tip Tuesday, Oct 4/2022
How To Line A Square Baking Pan;
There are different ways to line a square pan, but an easy way is to wet the parchment paper, then it will be sitting at the bottom of the pan much easier!
Tip Tuesday, Oct 11/2022
Why does every recipe instruct us to leave the cake in the pan for 10-15 minutes and then transfer it to the cooling rack?
The reason is that cake needs to let all the heat and steam come to the top of the cake and leave.
There are two reasons we need to do that;
1) If the cake is flipped out to the rack right out of the oven, there is a good chance that the cake will stick to the pan.
2) If the steam does not get a chance to come to the surface and evaporate, that will result in a mushy and soggy texture.
Tip Tuesday, Oct 18/2022
I am sure you have seen this statement in almost every recipe that contains flour; " DO NOT OVERMIX", but do we know why??
The reason is, overmixing results in flour releasing Gluten which toughens the dough or batter. This applies to cookies, cakes, etc.
Tip Tuesday, Oct 25/2022
Why do we need to chill some cookie dough?
Chilling cookie dough is required when the dough contains ingredients such as melted butter that make the dough less firm. In this case, chilling the dough firms up the dough and prevents the cookies from spreading too much.
Tip Tuesday Nov 1/2022
- When the recipe does not indicate the size of the eggs, you consider large eggs. On ma blog, all eggs are large size even if the recipe does not mention the egg's size.
Tip Tuesday Nov 8/2022
Always keep in mind to weigh the ingredients that go by weight such as Flour, Chocolate, etc. This might sound a bit weird but even each measuring cup set is different. It is recommended to go by weight, not just the measurement. The recipe author's measuring cup is different from yours.