Simple Tips For Baking Great Cakes

By Deborah Lambeth

So you want to make a delicious cake to impress your friends or family, and you want some insider tips to be sure it's a success. Let’s see… Tip#1: buy a Duncan Hines cake mix. Tip#2: buy a can of Betty Crocker frosting. Tip#3: Bake according to the directions on the box. Tip #4-Cool and frost the cake. Voila! You have a great cake, right? Not hardly! Why let boxed cake mixes take all the fun and satisfaction out of making your own cake from scratch? Not to mention that a freshly made cake tastes much better than one from a box. There are easy ways to make your own cake from scratch, and by following just a few great tips, your dinner guests will "ooh" and "ahh" over your culinary baking skills.

The first step to having a great cake is to have a great recipe. The Internet is chock full of great recipes. Virtually a one-stop recipe shop for anything (including cakes) is The Food Network’s website. Here you can find almost any recipe, all of which have been tested and tried by some of the country’s most famous cooks. Epicurean is another site that lists lots of recipes; however, some of these can be on the high-end scale of difficulty so you’ll need to look through the comments section for each recipe to determine if it’s a bit too much for you to tackle. If you’re looking for a recipe that has been tried and tested by average people, not professional chefs, then the site to visit is All Recipes, a site that boasts "real recipes from real people." All of the recipes on All Recipes have been submitted by regular folks and rated by regular folks, who also give comments about their experiences and suggestions for changes or additions to the recipes.

The second step to making a great cake is to use the right equipment. Should you use non-stick, glass, stainless steel, or aluminum pans? Non-stick bakeware has a tendency to make a darker crust, while glass has a tendency to cook more quickly, so if you use glass you'll need to adjust your cooking time and possibly your oven temperature. Both stainless steel and aluminum bakeware need additional coating such as shortening or non-stick cooking spray on the bottoms and sides to make sure the cake doesn’t stick to the pan. If you use shortening to grease the pan, you can avoid the mess by using a paper towel to spread the shortening or by putting a plastic sandwich bag over your hand. Then sprinkle flour on top of the shortening and tap the sides of the pan to coat the shortening with the flour. If you’re making a chocolate cake, try using powdered cocoa instead of the flour, so your chocolate cake won't have white flour on it--which is of particular importance if the cake won't be completely covered with frosting. Go ahead and prepare your pans before you start putting together your recipe.

The third step is to have all of your ingredients measured before you begin, and be sure all the ingredients are at room temperature unless the recipe says otherwise. Have your recipe close at hand so you can add the ingredients in the correct order and use the correct mixing times and speeds. Here are just a few more recipe tips you may want to consider:

• For a better-textured cake, you might want to consider using buttermilk instead of milk if your recipe calls for milk. Because buttermilk contains more acid than milk, remember to add ½ tsp. of baking soda for each cup of milk you use. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make your own buttermilk by stirring 1 T. of lemon juice or vinegar into 1 cup of milk.
  
• For a lighter cake, separate the eggs and add just the yolks to the butter mixture first. Then whip the egg whites separately using clean beaters until they form soft peaks, and then fold them into your cake batter.
  
• Be sure to beat the butter and sugar for as long as the recipe directs.
  
• Cool the cake thoroughly before frosting.

With patience and perhaps a little trial and error, you will become a great cake maker in no time! But no matter how your cake turns out, it will definitely be something guests will long remember, because they’ll know you made it especially for them.