Baking/ Decorating Cakes Tips

Baking is an exact science while cake-decorating is an art.

Icing a cupcake:
Spread fresh cream icing/ butter cream around top of cupcake w/o allow spatula touch surface of cake.

Fondant Flowers & Leaves:
*Knead & color fondant (home-made/ store bought)
*Roll out fondant & cut flowers with a cookie cutter.
*To make leaves, make teardrop shape by hand & flatten them. Score them with a knife.

Fondant Ribbon Cupcake:
*Cover leveled cupcake with a circle of fondant.
*Fold lengths of fondant into ribbons.

Whipping Cream:
*Whip using electric beater until soft peak. whip to stiff peak using whisk.

Appropriate Oven Temp:
*Sponge/ Pound/ Butter: 170 deg celcius to 180 deg c.
*Fruitcake/ Cheesecake: 150 deg c to 160 deg c.

Dry all baking equipment to prevent affecting the ingredients.

Scrap down ingredients with rubber spatula when using electric mixer, to mix evenly.

Use room temp. eggs & butter. Rm temp. butter can trap more air bubbles during creaming process. Rm temp. egg blend into batter more smoothly. Rm temp. egg whites whip better.

Never over-beat butter/ pound cake or it will turn out rubbery & tough.

Folding method:
*Use a large spatula. Fold in 1/2 flour first. Over-folding, like over-mixing, will result in a denser cake.

Sponge cake've to be prepared & baked asap, so batter will not deflate as they depend mainly on beaten egg whites for their mixture. (except pre-mix sponge recipe- able to sit max. 2hrs w/o deflating.

Butter/ Pound cake benefit from sitting 30mins, so chemical leaveners (baking powder) have time to work on it.

Benefits of double-acting powder:
*react once add liquid.
*2nd time respond to heat.

For Sponge cake, place in oven middle rack & cover with cookie-sheet for first 10-15mins. so the top of cake doesn't cook first & weigh down at bottom.

If splitting/ torting cake is required, divide batter into 2 same-sized pans. Use scale to measure both batter filled equally. 2 shallow layers will be moister as spend less time in oven as cook faster & rise better than 1 thick layer.

Knives used:
Cut butter-type cakes: long thin knife.
trim round top, chiffon cake, pound cake: serrated knife

Frosting: offset.

Smooth Icing :
*can be achieved by.. after get icing on cake. Dip icing spatula in hot H2O & wipe in towel to take off H20 & lightly smooth out icing. The heat from spatula will melt the shortening in the icing causing it to be smooth.
*paper edge slide across icing.

Achieve high gloss finish:
*By brushing apricot preserves on top of pie after baking.
*Brush egg / milk on top for a golden crust before baking.

Preheat oven 10-15mins before baking.

Decorate icing, using back of wet spoon to create peaks & dips for frosting &/ wet knife for a smooth finish.

General Equilivence:
1 cup= 240ml.
1tsp= 5ml.
1 tbsp= 15ml.
1 quart= 950ml.
100F= approx. 38 deg cel.

Pastry Brush:
Use it to gently brush off crust after cake cooled.
Clean with hot water & detergent.

Use shiny metal pans for baking. It reflect heat away, producing a tender, light-colored crust.

Frost cake only when completely cooled, or the frosting will melt & slide off the cake.

Never grease for chiffon, angel & sponge cakes.

Cooling after baking:
Cakes should be cooled completely on wired racks.
Cool round cakes in pans for 10mins. Then loosen & remove from pans to wire racks.
Cool rectangular cakes in pans completely.

Method of cooling Cheesecake:
Cheesecake should be cool in oven for an hour, with door open & oven switched off.
Then, cool on counter-top for a few more hours.
Lastly, transfer to refrigerator to chill overnight.

Cool Sponge/ Butter cake upside down on a cooling rack. This will stretch & make cake 'lighter' in texture. Never cool cake in air-con rm as dry air suck out moisture from the cake.

Storage of cakes:
When cake completely cooled, store them in air-tight container as keep out moisture & prevent cake from drying out.

Duration of Storage of cakes:
Butter/ Sponge cake: max. 5 days in rm temp. (in air-tight box)/ longer in fridge.
Cheesecake: refrigerated 1week or more. /Frozen in pan covered foil.
Fruit cake: 1 or 2 months in rm. temp.
**cakes can be frozen 1-2 months using correct method of storage. Thaw cake for a few hours in its package, so that condensation on package not on cake.
Frosted/ filled cake: 1-2 days.

Cake should spring back slowly when touch in middle, is done.

Dust decorating flowers with superfine sugar to produce a sparkly and elegant effect.

Chill 45mins before cut cake.
15mins set in fridge frosting.

Terrific for deco cake:
*Sanding- colored sugar.
*Toasted & candied nuts
*Squashed OREOs.
*Gumdums & candies.
*Choco curls
*Rainbow sprinkles.

DREAMY CUPCAKE
Leonice Choo
website: http://www.cupcake-dreamy.net/
email: dreamy_cupcake@yahoo.com.sg