Why is baking a good hobby?
It’s simple, all you need is a recipe. You can easily find a dessert with either typical household items or exotic ingredients. There are so many variety’s that you will be able to make a mouth watering dessert to impress anyone! Plus, you can have a great time making your creation beautiful! You can really travel to your own world, with music or just plain house noise, you can focus and create! Here are some tips on all around the baking world!
Baking really is simple!
- Baking uses primary ingredients.
- Most recipes are easy to follow.
- It doesn’t clutter your house.
- It is inexpensive.
- In the end you get a super tasty treat!
Tips for making mouthwatering desserts!
These are things I have learned while baking. Simple rules to keep your baking delicious!
- Check the recipe. Just to be safe, check your recipe before hand to make sure you have all the ingredients and the correct measurements.
- Check the tools. Make sure you have all the primary measuring tools. See Equipment to see what’s necessary to have in a bakers kitchen.
- Check the recipe after ever ingredient. You will want to always check before putting a ingredient into your container to be sure that you are doing the correct measurements. If you end up with a tablespoon of salt rather than a quarter of a teaspoon you’ll end up with a unpleasantly salty item.
- Separate dry and wet ingredients. If the recipe needs you to have them in together they will specify. If your dry and wet ingredients are separated they will be much easier to combine. Mixing dry, wet, dry, wet will make the process slower and most of the time more tedious. The dough will be hard to mix without all the wet ingredients.
- Double check everything. Double checking is a lot less painful than throwing away a pan of dough or dessert. It will also lessen the likelihood that you miss any ingredients. Double check preparation, ingredients, and measurements.
- Don’t use box mixes. If you make anything homemade it will taste a ton times better. If you don’t believe me try it. Box mixes don’t take out as much of the work as you think! All they give you is the dry ingredients and a recipe. You can get that online and make a cake that tastes much better and uses the same amount of work!
Styles of desserts!
This is definitely a important part of baking. This is where you put your heart and soul into your dessert! Every dessert has a little part of what makes you YOU. Make it the best part, your favorite part, of you. Colors or flavors or design.
- Vibrant Nationality dessert. This can be yours, whoever the dessert is for, or even a random one your into! This can be portrayed with spices, colors, design, or even shape! This really is just a large art craft. Enjoy every bit of it and make every one totally you!
- Pick a Theme. This is really fun to play with. You could do a western, regal, esthetic, baby, or birthday theme. There are no limits to the main idea. Once you chose a theme you can make an all around dessert or a simple one. An all around dessert would be, for example, a cake themed southern. You could make it apple cake with cinnamon and tan and white frosting as if it’s a dust storm, or you could just get a southern cardboard “What’s up Ya’ll?” and stick it into a vanilla cake.
- Pick a Type. Here you get to pick if you want a beautiful cake, some oozy eclairs, or even delicious macarons! Some guide lines for this are 1# if there are going to be children it would be easier (and more appreciated) to make a cake rather than macarons ( just a example). Macarons are a dessert that take time and effort with every little step and sometimes even several tries, where as a cake can be made in 1-2 hours even with precise detail and be more practical. If it is a adult gathering then most desserts would be appropriate ( but depending on the group you might want to bring only your best). If it’s just for you or some close friends you can make anything you want to eat today or tomorrow and no matter how it looks, it will most likely be gone by the next day. So use some common sense and a little hunger to decide on your dessert.
- Design your dessert! This is for frosted desserts. This will determine how your dessert will look. You can have a very sophisticated one by making the frosting crisp and smooth, or a homie look with some waves created by using a butter knife to dip and pull the frosting all around to look like a sea or ocean surface. A great place for inspiration is Pinterest of course. You can find a design for every theme you could think of and if you can’t, make it yourself! Remember that it takes years to create what you have in your head perfectly so be sure to enjoy the process of finding what it will look like rather than scowling at what it doesn’t look like.
Tips for baking a cake!
I have some tips for specifically cake but most of them do work or even help with other desserts as well.
- Preparation.
- Butter : If you know you will be making a cake, take out the amount of butter needed to thaw. It will be easier to use. If you don’t happen to have it thawed there are other ways to thaw it on the spot but none that I’ve found do the job just right.
- Eggs :Every once in a while there will also be a cake that asks for room temperature eggs. it takes about three hours to thaw either one (your climate can make it faster or slower).
- Powdered sugar : Make sure you have enough of this (also called confectioners sugar). A bowl of frosting can use up to 8 cups of it.
- Clean as you go. Cleaning as you go helps keep the kitchen from exploding. Which helps when by the time your done with the cake your feet hurt and you want to do is eat a slice, NOT clean a blown up kitchen. Soaking the bowls also helps from having impossible dishes to wash.
- Recipes. If you use a recipe and you like it, make sure to keep it. Simple cakes like vanilla or chocolate are great to keep around. I found mine and every time I try a different one it’s nice to know that you have a great one that won’t fail you if you need one. That way you have the freedom to explore cakes and have great ones so you don’t have to cross your fingers when your guest cuts a slice. You can enjoy your time without worry and if there are leftovers, guess who gets to eat up the cake? You!
- Buttercream frosting. This is my favorite frosting to use on cakes. It’s fairly good at holding its shape, it uses typical household ingredients, if the cake is cooled than it shouldn’t melt, and it is very delicious. I like to sweeten it to taste that way it is not to sweet, but I find that it takes a lot of sugar to over sweeten it. The more powdered sugar you put the thicker it will be so choose the design before hand so that you can easily know how thick it needs to be to achieve your design.
Tips for getting the best ingredients!
The ingredients matter! The better the ingredients the better the dessert.
- Organic is best! I find that organic butter actually changes the quality of the dessert. For instance, my mom makes chocolate chip cookies that almost everyone LOVES. Many people have asked for the recipe but after they make it they all say it tastes, well, different than my moms. That is because she uses all organic ingredients. It changes the richness. It is more expensive but if you want to wow someone with something, try using all organic and see if you taste the difference.
- Pick a delicious chocolate. I use Ghirardelli chocolate which is also high end but makes the best chocolate chips. When chocolate chips are not needed I use regular cocoa powder.
- Where to get everything else? Other ingredients should be easy to get at Walmart or any close grocery store. I do think they are better organic but it does not change the dessert. Get whatever you prefer and start baking!
Equipment necessary for baking!
There are tons or baking tools and knickknacks, which I will admit are fun and useful but most are not necessary and can be replaced by simpler, more affordable, and typically household items.
- Handheld mixer or stand mixer. One of these are necessary. Whisking will get very old very fast. I do use it for whipping cream for a nice arm workout but for regular baking it is much better to have a electrical mixer.
- Butter knife. A butter knife has so many uses’. It can be used to design, cut the right amount of butter, scoop, and so much more.
- Measuring spoons. These are a very high requirement. You can not be precise with a eating spoon. You should have a 1/4, 1/2, and 1 teaspoons and one tablespoon. You should also have measurements for 1/4, 1/2 , and 1 cup. It is helpful to have two measurements for 1 cup so that one can be for dry ingredients and the other for wet ones.
My conclusion on baking! 🙂
Baking is a relaxing activity that is not hard on the body, won’t get you sweating , and is not on technology (besides some recipes). You can also make it a group activity. It’s my dream to open a café where I can bake to my hearts desires. 🙂
love, Julie