Tips and Tricks

Cupcakes:

Some of you have trouble with your cupcakes RISING! Start with 375°F temperature and once they JUMP, turn down to 325°F and bake the rest of the way.

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Accidents do happen –

over- beaten cream!

Method

Beat the fresh cream in a mixer – look away for a second and voila you have butter!!

If your cream separates while you are waiting for it to have peaks, you will notice milk jumping all over, this is butter milk and the cream would have got stuck to your K-beater part.

This has turned to butter – don’t panic, add some salt and fresh herbs if you have any at the time, put it into a cling film and roll up like a sausage and put in the fridge. Et Voila you have butter!! Crush some Garlic or add a bit of herbs and you have herb or garlic butter!!

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Cake Making -

Eggs are very important:

Eggs have to be at room temperature, not cold from the fridge. If they are too cold, soak them for a few minutes in a bowl of warm water.

Tips on EGGS

Eggs are easier to separate when cold. Egg whites whip up easier when closer to room temperature. If you have the time separate them in advance.

Make sure the bowl you whip your whites in is super clean. Any residue water or fat will prevent the egg whites from becoming fluffy.

You can whip egg whites by hand, but a cake beater will get it done faster.

Whipping the egg whites at a low speed allows the protein in the whites to break down better. This helps the whipped egg whites become more voluminous.

Do not rush the recipe and put all the sugar into the egg whites at once. Add it gradually so that you do not lose volume.

Use gel food colouring, you can use what you have on hand but remember that gel food colouring is more concentrated, so you can add less, whereas liquid food colouring may thin out the icing if you add too much to it.

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Alternating method mix of flour and milk:

First add a little dry ingredients – then liquid- dry- liquid – and lastly dry (3 dry and 2 liquid)

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Cake Collar:

If your baking pan is not very deep, use parchment paper. Trace the bottom of the pan on a piece of parchment paper. Cut it out and line the bottom of the pan. Then line the sides of the pan with parchment paper so that the parchment paper creates a collar that sits 1 to 2-inches above the pan. Make sure that you brush some melted butter to the bottom and sides of the pan so the parchment paper sticks.

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Cake Mix Curdle:

But what precisely is a split (curdled) cake mix?

As many of you will know, the first stage in making many cake batters is to cream the butter and sugar until ‘pale and fluffy’. Usually the eggs are then added, which is when the nightmarish curdle tends to occur.

This is because the butter and eggs are often at different temperatures, which makes it far more difficult for the fats in the egg yolk and butter to blend with the water content from the egg whites and butter, i.e. an emulsion can’t be formed. Were this mayonnaise, you’d have to pretty much start again, but with a cake batter it really doesn’t matter anymore.

So, if your cake batter splits, I would recommend you simply ignore it – it’ll even itself out in the oven, anyway.

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Cake Batter:

leaving the cake batter on the counter while the other one bakes – good or bad idea?

Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate is about four times as strong as baking powder. Baking soda starts to react and release carbon dioxide gas as soon as it is added to the batter and moistened, so you will not want to mix your batter and let it sit on the counter. Bake it immediately.

Cakes -

Ok to Sit out or in fridge for a few hours before baking:

Chocolate Cake

Red Velvet Cake

Carrot Cake

White Cake

Golden Butter Cake

Vanilla Cupcakes

Pound Cake

Cakes -

Bake Immediately:

Champagne Cake

Sponge Cake

Strawberry Sponge Cake

Peanut Butter Sponge Cake

Lady Fingers Sponge Cake

Fruit Cake

Roulade Sponge

Vanilla Chiffon

Lemon Chiffon

Banana Cake

Hazelnut Dacquoise

Decadence Cake

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Butter Milk Substitute:

There are a few things that can be used to stand in for buttermilk if it is not available.

If you have some regular, plain yogurt to hand then use 200mls (2/3 cup) yogurt to 50mls (1/3 cup) milk.

If you have Greek yogurt only then use equal quantities of Greek yogurt and milk. The yogurt/milk combination is particularly good as a substitute for buttermilk in marinades.

Alternatively you can sour some milk by adding some acid. Pour 250mls (1 cup) milk into a jug and stir in 1 (15ml) tablespoon of lemon juice or white wine vinegar. Stir well and leave to stand for 5 minutes before using as directed in the recipe. Full fat (whole) milk or semi-skimmed (reduced fat) milk work best here as skimmed (non fat) milk tends to turn a little watery.

OR

BUTTERMILK substitute with cream of Tarter

Add 1 3/4 teaspoon of cream of tarter to regular milk. Stir. Let stand 5 minutes. The milk will get thicker and clumpy and is ready to use in any recipe calling for buttermilk.

BUTTERMILK substitute with white vinegar - (The picture is with Vinegar)

Add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to regular milk. Let stand 5 minutes. The milk will get thicker and clumpy and is ready to use in any recipe calling for buttermilk. Other vinegar options are not a good replacement for white vinegar.

BUTTERMILK substitute with lemon juice

Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to regular milk. Let stand 5 minutes. The milk will get thicker and clumpy and is ready to use in any recipe calling for buttermilk

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Fondant - What you need to know

Fondant in countries with high humidity

Use an air-conditioned room

Use corn starch instead of icing sugar to roll out

Vodka to paste instead of water as vodka evaporates and dries faster

Use 50 of fondant and 50 of gum paste so that it will set faster (half and half)

For skin tone use gum paste fondant and tylose powder and then add skin tone colour (peach) to get the colour desired.

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Coin in Freezer

Why you should always put a coin in a frozen bowl/mug of water in your fridge.

My take would be a small Pyrex container - no cracks or breakages in freezer!!

Method

Take a bowl/mug and pour in some water and keep in your freezer.

Freeze it solid and then put a coin on top of it and leave it in your freezer.

If you lose power for any reason you will have this tip to fall back on. This will show you if your fridge had gone off whilst you were away for the day.

If the coin has fallen to the bottom of the bowl/mug that means all the food is defrosted and you should throw it out. But if the coin is either on the top or in the middle of the mug/bowl then your food may still be ok.

That way when you come back after you spent a day or few days away from home you can tell if your food went completely bad and just refroze or if it stayed Frozen while you were gone.

It would also be a great idea to leave this in your freezer all the time.

trial and error- NEVER put a glass bottle in even if it is not sealed!

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To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.

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To preserve fresh mint, put them into a zip lock bag and fill water (not to the top) Seal and freeze. When you need keep to defrost and you have fresh mint leaves.

To preserve fresh mint, put them into a zip lock bag and fill water (not to the top) Seal and freeze. When you need keep to defrost and you have fresh mint leaves.

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Substitutes

No baking powder at home

Make Your Own Baking Powder Substitute

All you have to do is to mix ¼ teaspoon of baking soda with ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar. This will give you 1 teaspoon of baking powder. However, if you're planning on storing your DIY baking powder, then you'll have to mix ¼ teaspoon of corn-starch to the same ratio.

No Baking soda at home

Substitutes for baking soda

One of the easiest substitutes for baking soda is baking powder. If you have baking powder in your cabinet, simply add triple the amount of baking powder to your recipe. For example, if your recipe calls for one tablespoon of baking soda, add three tablespoons of baking powder.

Need Citric Acid?

substitute for citric acid

Substitute 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white distilled vinegar for every 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid called for.

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