Help me make wonderful cakes!

[ObviouslyOblivious]

I'd like to start making lovely cakes for birthdays and other celebrations, but I don't have the first clue what equipment i need or where to get ideas from!

I have a loaf tin and some sandwich tins, am ok at baking but have never iced anything. And I'm not very artistic

If you do make fantastic cakes (and I know lots of MNers do):

What are your equipment essentials?
Best place to buy equipment?
Best places for design ideas?

And... would you be wiling to share your top cake making/decorating tip?

I would buy an electric hand mixer and a large mixing bowl. Sandwich tins will be fine. Invest in a decent cook book, Mary berry or Delia have tips on how to bake and decorate. I'd buy a good set of scales and some bun tins too. I make a lot of buns/ cupcakes and they take no time.

Top tip- basic cake mixture. I start by weighing my eggs in shells. Then you need exactly the same weight of self raising flour, marg and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Bake for about 20 mins. Voila! Beautiful cake or buns.

I love baking, have fun!!

Do as kitten says but use butter instead of marg - tastes better and makes a nicer texture. And add a tsp of vanilla essence (good stuff, not flavouring).

Line tins with baking parchment.

My electric hand-mixer was about £8 from Tescos a few years ago and is fine.

Also, if you want to make cupcakes etc look pretty, you need an icing bag & a large tip to make big swirls of icing that never fail to impress.

Google for design ideas or Debbie Brown books for inspiration.

Damn... Kitten got in quick with my best tip. That recipe works every time. So simple. So perfect. Oh, but add a teensy bit of vanilla extract to make it perfect. Yum yum.

Once you've mastered that, you need the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I swear by it. The carrot cake is amazing. The only thing that I'd say is that their timings are way out. You will need to cook everything for much longer than they say.

I'd also start collecting various cupcake wrappers and things to decorate them with (mini marshmallows, hundreds and thousands, edible glitter, that sort of thing) as it's so nice to be able to reach into a cupboard and have pretty things available!

Enjoy. Baking is great

Also try your local technical college. A lot run basic cake decorating courses too so it may be worth investing in going on one of those. The local WI may also run informal courses and have very knowledgable members so may be worth joining.

And also, decent eggs - I am an egg snob as I have chickens but they really do make a difference.

Hummingbird book is good - DP uses that a lot and he's a novice baker. I like Nigella for baking but lots of people find her recipes inconsistent.

I always use large eggs (free range), stork margarine (unless the recipe calls for butter) and good quality baking tins. Lakeland have good ones, I got mine in 3 for 2.

Agree about a good book - I have a lot of baking books but tend to use Mary Berry - her all in one recipes are foolproof.

Vanilla extract is a must - costs a fiver a throw, but it is worth it... Neilson Massey is a good one, you can buy this from Tesco.

Thanks everyone, I lost this thread somehow

I'll be baking on Saturday, wish me luck!

No problem in using large eggs provided your quantities of other ingredients match. An American "Large" egg is the same size as a UK "Medium" egg, but if reading an American recipe and you wind up putting a UK Large egg in, it will make your batter wetter than it should be. Always best to weigh your eggs and work from there. A UK Medium is from 53gms to 63gms, so about 2ozs each, but a UK Large could be as much as 73gms, a huge increase on a 53gm Medium.

Mary Berry is bringing out a new cookery book with over 1000 recipes next week. They won't all be baking, but a fair proportion will be.