How to start baking

Wonderbaking: Tips and tricks to start baking

Wonderbaking first and main goal is to help every beginners to learn basic baking. Some of you are scared to bake because everyone think baking is hard and complicated, but NO I promised you it's not hard it's actually therapeutic and enjoyable. This 6 tips will help you to improve your baking skill and will never fail a recipe again.

1. Follow the Recipe

This sounds obvious, right? Following the recipe is the most important cake baking tip you’ll ever hear/read. It’s also the most ignored. We often substitute ingredients in recipes based on what we have. Subbing out eggs, reducing sugar, using liquid sweetener instead of dry, all-purpose instead of cake flour, baking soda for powder, egg whites instead of whole eggs, etc. I do not recommend doing this unless the recipe suggests alternatives. Don’t sabotage your time, effort, and money. I’m guilty of this, too! Sometimes I’m in a rush and just not paying attention or I’m making a substitution because I ran out of an ingredient. But ingredients are needed for a reason and, more often than not, a cake fail is because the recipe wasn’t properly followed. I always recommend following a recipe the first time you try it, then making changes as you see fit the next time.

2. Room Temperature

“Room temperature” isn’t listed next to ingredients for fun. There’s science and legitimate reason behind it. If a recipe calls for room temperature ingredients, use room temperature ingredients like eggs, sour cream, butter, and milk.

• How do you know if your butter is in room temperature?

Room temperature butter is about 65°F (18°C), which might be colder than your kitchen. It’s cool to touch, not warm. If your cakes are dense, you’re probably softening the butter too much. Allow the butter to sit out on the counter for about 1-2 hours before beginning your recipe. To test it, poke the butter with your finger. Your finger should make an indent without sinking or sliding down into the butter. The butter should not be shiny or greasy. It will be cool to touch, not warm. Sometimes our schedules don’t allow 1-2 hours for softening butter prior to beginning a cake recipe.

3. Measure Properly

Flour is the most common mis-measured ingredient. When measuring flour, use the “spoon & level” method. Do not scoop the flour out of the container/bag with your measuring cup. In some cases, scooping the flour could give you 150% of the correct measurement. Disaster ensues. Rather, using a spoon, scoop the flour into the measuring cup. Do not pack the flour down and do not tap the measuring cup– both cause the flour to settle in the cup. After you’ve spooned the flour into the measuring cup, use the back of a knife to level off the top of the measuring cup. Now you have spoon & leveled flour.

I also recommend using a 'weighing scale' for more accurate measurements. Baking is not very forgiving. Understanding the correct measuring technique for a particular ingredient will guarantee better baking results.

4. Don't over mix / undermix the batter!

 Whether a recipe calls for mixing batter with an electric mixer or simply using a whisk, make sure you’re mixing the cake batter together *just until* the ingredients are combined. Over-mixing batter, whether that’s for cakes, cupcakes, breads, muffins, etc, lends a tough-textured baked good because you’re deflating all the air and over-developing the gluten.

Likewise, it is also important for you to not undermix the batter. Of course! we want a fully incorporated ingredients

5. Don't open the oven too often

Don’t open the oven 25 times as the cake bakes. This lets in cool air and the drastic temperature change causes the rising cake to sink. (Temperature change is the same reason cheesecake can develop cracks. Rather, follow the baking time in the recipe and check the cake one or two times for doneness. 

It’s also wonderfully helpful to own an oven thermometer. Unless you have a new or regularly calibrated oven, your oven’s temperature is likely inaccurate. When you set your oven to 350°F, it might not be 350°F inside

6. Always pre-heat your oven

Pre-heating your oven to your desired temperate for 20 minutes is a very important step in baking that you should not skip. Pre-heating your oven avoid temperature shock to your batter. This step also helps your batter to have a even rise

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