Make better cakes

Have you ever wondered why some people bake better than others? The answer is simple...patience. Baking isn't difficult, you just need to take the time to do it right. Some people fuss over measurements and getting exact ingredients. I'm here to tell you that it really doesn't matter all that much. If you want to change up a recipe, just keep the proportions the same. Make sure your dry ingredients stay dry and wet ingredients stay wet. You can sub milk, sour cream, juice, or even flavored creamer for the liquid in a recipe to enhance flavors. As far as the dry ingredients go, you can use whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose in quick breads and muffins, but please do not make cake with it. I implore you! While you can use it if you really want to, know that you WILL sacrifice texture and flavor if you do. And seriously, why bother making cake "healthy." It's cake! You don't eat it everyday and it is supposed to be a decadent treat, so let's keep it that way!

So you wanna learn how to make better tasting cake? Follow these simple instructions to a moist, fluffy, slice of heaven.

First, EVERYTHING should be at room temperature. Just take it out of the fridge in the morning, go about your day, then bake after lunch. Cream the butter and sugar until it looks soft and you no longer see grains of sugar, which is what "creaming" is.

Add the eggs one at a time. I hope you left these out of the fridge. Otherwise, why did you bother creaming the butter and sugar. Cold eggs will seize up the butter and nothing from this point on will fully incorporate.

When it comes to the flour and liquid, do it alternately. 1/3 of the flour, then half of the liquid, another 1/3 of the flour, remaining 1/2 of the liquid, and the final 1/3 of the flour. Again, you do this so that everything incorporates well. I always stop shy of the flour being fully incorporated and use a spatula so as not to overmix. The longer you mix once any bit of flour is added the tougher a cake will be.






I ALWAYS use parchment paper to line by baking pans. This ensures that it will come out of the pan. Even if I know a recipe, I still use it. Why chance that this one time something will awry? I hope these tips will you turn out a beautiful cake next time you give it a whirl. Stay tuned for tips on how to ice a cake like a bakery professional!

Book cakes!

 What are the odds that during National Library Week (April 15-20, 2013) that I would have the pleasure of making 2 book cakes? The styles are completely different and each presented it's own challenges, but in the end they both worked out. The open book cake is chocolate cake with raspberry mousse filling, one of my fav's! And the Harry Potter cake is lime cake with cherry filling, think cherry limeade.

Open book cake

Horcrux Cake, for Harry Potter fans.

Healthy Fruit and Grain Bars

I have never been against things like white flour, sugar, or real butter. In fact, I love them and use them quite frequently. I have, however, always been against processed foods. The reason is simple, most people don't know what they are actually eating. Even if you can pronounce the obscure names on the backs of  nutrition labels that doesn't mean it should be consumed. I won't bore you with every little ingredient and how your body processes them.

One of my youngest daughter's favorite snack items is the jelly filled grain bars from the supermarket. I personally despise them. They are overly sweet and unappetizing. With that said, I decided that I need to see what I was actually feeding her. Aside from the obvious use of white flour and high fructose corn syrup, did you know that they use dyes derived from petroleum  to "enhance" the color of the filling? I wasn't aware that yummy fruit needed enhancing. I'm silly that way. I don't want to lecture anyone on what they eat, or what they choose to feed their kids, I just want you to know the facts. You are more than capable of deciding for yourself.

I digress. Next I contemplated the components of these bars and realized they are very similar to Raspberry Oatmeal Squares. I just knew that I could tweak the recipe to make it more healthful. So I used whole grains, real fruit, used healthy fat, and decreased the sugar. So here you go.

Fruit and Grain Bars

1-16 oz pkg of frozen strawberries, nothing added (use fresh or frozen berries or applesauce)

1/4 cup honey (you can sub brown rice syrup, agave, or any sweetener you choose) 

Cook this down to 1 cup and mash or puree to desired consistency. Let cool.

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour (you could use AP flour, but my attempt was to get wholesome foods into my daughter)

1-1/4 cups rolled oats (again, instant oats are fine too, so are steel cut)

1/2 cup wheat germ (this can be flax seed or nuts if you want more crunch) 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup of a healthy oil, I used canola (sub coconut or olive oil or butter if you are cool like that)

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir in oil. Pat 2/3 of the grain mixture into a 9" square pan. Make sure you pack in and don't leave gaps. Bake this at 350 degrees until it just starts to brown which was 15 minutes in my oven. Then spread the fruit on top of the warm crust. Next sprinkle the remaining grain mixture on top of the fruit. Bake again until the fruit bubbles around the edges, which was about 20 minutes. Let cool completely on the counter before you cut the bars and remove them from the pan.

I will admit to eating a few of these this afternoon. At least I wasn't ingesting harmful chemicals!

 

Thanks for hanging in there

This will we short and sweet. I took a hiatus because I was working in a professional bakery and I didn't want to post their cakes on my blog. Rest assured I am back with Tiffany's Cake and I'm expanding to other bakes as well. Stay tuned for an updated menu and prices. Thank you for your patience.