Basic Baking and Cake Decorating (2 Viewers)

If you have any kind of bake sale coming up and you're looking for a few ideas or inspiration, then why not try making one of the following items? They can be altered and amended to suit your needs, and they can be as simple or elaborate as you want them to be, depending on your time and budget. 5 Things to make for a Bake Sale... Biscuits and Cookies These are always a best-seller. Stick with the classic chocolate chip cookie or shortbread, or be a little more daring by adding fruits or flavours such as matcha or spices to help elevate your bakes. You can make them as simple, elaborate or fun themed as you like. Not only that, you can make an array of simple or intricate designs, or they can just be cut into fun shapes. Cupcakes...

When using Icing/Sugarpaste or Fondant on a cake, you must always ensure that it has a good shelf life and is in date before you cover your cake. However, if you are making dummy toppers or a display cake, then the icing/sugarpaste/fondant doesn't have to be in date as it isn't going to be consumed. The only thing you may find with the out-of-date paste is that it may be harder and drier and could require a little more kneading. Tip: Always keep your out-of-date icing sugarpaste fondant in a separate cupboard/box/tub away from your new in-date icing so that you never get the two confused. Either that or use up all your paste before the expiry date. Basic Baking and Cake Decorating Hints, Tips and Tools Recipes and Guides Tutorials

Due to various reasons, many people cannot tolerate eggs in their baked goods. Therefore if you find yourself in this quandary, here are a few alternative ingredients you can use instead. Ingredients that can be substituted for an egg(s) in baking:- Apple Sauce You can use apple sauce to replace your egg(s). Not only will it prevent your bakes from drying out, but it will also add moisture to them too. However, to ensure that your bakes aren't too sweet, use unsweetened apple sauce. If you can't, reduce the amount of sugar in your recipe, so you don't overload your bake with sweetness. Aquafaba This is the liquid left over after cooking chick peas, legumes or any kind of pulses. It is similar to egg whites when whisked and is...

As we are heading towards Christmas, I decided to make some Candy Cane Chocolate Bars. So after sending my daughter on an expedition to get some Candy Canes, I finally managed to get some time to make them. As the Candy Canes were festive red, white and green, I decided to use them with both dark and white chocolate to see which one I preferred visually. I then went through my baking cupboard to see what other decorations I could use to keep with the theme. Once decided, I stripped the Candy Canes of their wrapping and bashed them in a food bag to make them into smaller pieces. For the remainder of the decorations, I finally decided on Reindeer Sprinkles, Chocolate Dots (I picked out the red and green ones from the tub) and then...

If you are having trouble with a buttercream cake and need to hide some of the flaws you are experiencing, here are five ways you can hide, disguise or enhance your imperfections. How to cover flaws and imperfections on a buttercream cake. 1 Pipe roses on the cake to cover it. 2 Cover the exterior in chocolate curls. 3 Add sprinkles to the buttercream in various areas around the cake. 4 Strategically place dragees or pearls in the flawed areas and make them part of the pattern. 5 Give it a naked or rustic vibe and add yourself a topper or decorations of your choice to enhance it. And there you have it 5 simple ways to make your buttercream cakes look beautiful. Basic Baking and Cake Decorating Hints, Tips and Tools...

To help keep your cake in place when using buttercream or frosting, you can stick a piece of double-sided tape to the turntable and then place your cake board on the top. This will keep the board in place and stop the board and cake from moving while you buttercream. Or if you don't fancy sticking the board to the turntable, you could always use a non-stick mat, silicone mat or piece of black anti-slip mat to hold the cake and board in place instead. Either way, it won't move. Basic Baking and Cake Decorating Hints, Tips and Tools Recipes and Guides Tutorials

Adding multiple flavours or a mixture of ingredients into cakes and bakes can create something magnificent, so with that in mind and carrying on from my recent post relating to flavour combinations, here are a few more for you to look at. The lists below are there to help you work out what flavour pairings complement each other and will hopefully help you experiment a little more in the kitchen. Spices All Spice - Can add warm undertones and enhance flavours in any puddings or pies that you make. Anise - Works well with cakes, biscuits and pastries. Dark Chocolate This pairs well with any of the following: Dark Rum Banana Raspberry Candied Ginger Cherries Kirsch Hazelnuts Apricot Jam Lemon Works well combined with any of...

If you're looking at making some flavoursome bakes or want to upgrade some of your old recipes, then why not check out some of these flavour combinations? If you're looking for summer vibes, then any citrus fruit will give you that tangy zingy flavour that you have been looking for. Lime and Coconut are a perfect combination. Lemon with Blackberries or Raspberries pairs beautifully. Thyme can also compliment Lemon and Lime dishes but be careful with it, add a little and you can't taste it, add too much, and it will overpower the bake, so ensure you get a great balance between the two. Berries Who doesn't love a berry? It's bright, colourful, and filled with goodness so try adding them to your cakes and bakes. Nuts These also...

I never needed to thin out piping gel until I made my most recent cake. The celebratory cake was made up of afternoon tea mini cakes and baking ingredients, and I required a thinner form of piping gel for my miniature strawberry tart to help make it look more authentic. I initially tried using cold water, to no avail, as the gel just sat in blobs on top of the water. I then moved on to boiled water to see if that would alter the consistency, but again this just created the same blobby mess that the cold water did. So then, going for third time lucky, I went ahead and used vodka; I added a small teaspoon of neat vodka to the piping gel, mixed them together with a spoon and et voilà, perfectly thinned piping gel. Now please note...

Marzipan comes in two colours, white and yellow (golden). The difference between them is white marzipan is pliable and can be dyed with food colour to make modelled fruits or vegetables etc., and yellow/golden marzipan is generally used to cover cakes, although white marzipan may also be used as a covering. The golden or yellow marzipan is used as a first layer to cover Christmas or Wedding Cakes giving you a smoother surface to work with, allowing the final layer of icing fondant to be applied on the top. The cake should be covered in apricot jam prior to the marzipan being adhered to it. The jam acts as an adhesive and allows it to stick to the cake. The marzipan acts as a protective layer, preventing the fruit cake from staining...

I'm all about having staple cake decorating items in my cupboard, and Piping Gel is definitely one to add to the list. You'll be surprised to discover how versatile this tub of clear gel really is, and how many things you can actually use it for. Having recently used the piping gel as a form of glue to stick my edible ladybirds to the side of my cake. It was great to find that not only did they stick without sliding, but you couldn't see any of the gel holding them in place either. You can make piping gel yourself if you wish, but for the amount you get in a tub and the price you pay, it's probably easier to buy it and have it in your cake drawer. That way, it's always on hand if you need it and you'll have the same consistency of...

Torting a cake is just a really posh way of saying that you need to level and slice your cake into even-sized layers and then fill them evenly to give you the height of cake you require. You must ensure that each layer is level so that when stacked and filled, the overall cake is stable, straight and upright. How do you torte a cake? To torte a cake, you would level it first, then select a specific cake height that you want your cake to be. From there, you would then torte (cut) the cake into even layers and then fill them. The thickness of the layers will depend on who the cake is for and how tall/filled the recipient likes their cakes to be. This is because some people prefer minimum layers and minimal filling, whereas others...

If you want to ensure that your cupcakes come out moist and fluffy each time, then why not try some of the following techniques to help you out. A little tweak here and there with your baking can lead to fabulous results. 1 It's all about creating air bubbles; therefore, if you're using a stand mixer, mix your batter on a very slow speed until the ingredients have just combined. 2 Try not to over mix; otherwise, you'll undo all that lovely work you've just put into it. Overbeating leads to tough and dense cakes, and we want to avoid that! If you over-mix your batter, you will pop all the lovely air you've just created, so to prevent that, you could use a hand whisk instead. That way, you can see precisely when the ingredients are...