What do I need to begin baking?

[PlainOldVanilla]

Hi I'm hoping I can get some help. I use to enjoy baking alot when I was younger and living at home, I was never that good but I enjoyed it anyway, but now I haven't had a chance to have a proper go at it in the last few years so everything has gone out the window. Having DC1 has left me with permanent baby brain!

So I'm wondering what do I need to be able to start properly, sometimes I attempt something but then don't have XYZ so quit. I have weighing scales, mixing bowls, wooden spoons, tart tin and a couple of small loaf tins. Oh I have a food processor too if that's any help?

Any tips on what I need to get or tips in general would be great

Fairy cake tin.

Thank you

Fairy cake tin or muffin tin or both?

I don't want to spend a fortune just want to have a good set of basics

I use muffin tins, and large cupcake cases which are muffin size.

I would say a decent baking tray, and a square pan for brownies might be a good idea.

Thinking about what I use (in baking), the most, I'd say a silicone spatula, and a couple of sandwich tins, plus maybe 1 bigger springform tin. POssibly some spoon measures - so you can accurately measure teaspoon, tablespoon etc?

Do you have a whisk?

OOh, and I am lazy so could not be without a mixer (I have hand held and a stand one).

What baked things do you like to eat?

An oven

I use to have a electric whisk but it broke so I think ill get a hand held one.

I like the eat muffins, brownies and any cake with chocolate in. TBH I enjoy making them more then I like eating . Oh I love red velvet cake but I've never made that myself

Plainoldvanilla, if you buy a tin called bun hole tin, that will give you a good cupcake size, the smaller tin is for fairey cakes which i find way too small, invest in a stand mixer, i find it better than a hand held mixer .as you can leave it mix as go and do other things, there are some cheaper ones about thatare ok if you dont want to do a huge amount of baking, i use two as i bake alot of cakes for people.

Start off with simple things, i.e cupcakes, got recipes if you want them, just to build up you confidence and go from there.

Flour, butter, sugar, eggs
Mixing bowl, wooden spoon, tablespoon., cake tin, oven.

If you have loaf tins, then why not try a.loaf cake first - carrot cake or lemon drizzle say?

Thank you nanny any recipes would be great

Bike a lemon drizzle cake is quite a good idea but isn't carrot cake ment to be complicated?

Equipment or ingredients???

Equipment:
Bowls, spoons, electric (hand held?) whisk, measuring spoons (spoons and cup sizes), bun tins, cake and muffin cases, jug, scales, cutters, grater. pair of victoria sponge tins, loaf tin, large springform tin, square brownie tin, swiss roll tin?, baking sheets.

I put muffin cases in a bun tin to make muffins - fine if you don't require perfect looking, identical muffins.

Ingredients:
flour (plain, self raising, maybe strong or brown), sugar (brown, caster and icing), eggs, chocolate, chocolate drops, cocoa, margarine, butter, dried fruit (raisins, mixed fruit, mixed peal and cherries here, but currents, sultanas, apricots all substitutional, depending on your preferences!), , baking powder (maybe bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar), vanilla essence (get the expensive stuff), ground almonds, selection of chopped nuts.

Thats what I normally have in stock, but I guess depending on your preferences for cooking you might want other things, and not use much of others.

Can't see why carrot cake would be that hard? MN has a fab recipe section, which is where I'd start if no books.

Nah its fine honestly, carrot cake is fab, i'm making a simple lemon cake for a colleague tomorrow, two 8inch tins, 8ozs of everything, adding fresh lemon, then top with lemon cream and lemon curd.

Just alittle tip i alway use, if your going to try cupcakes, use an icecream scoop, its gives you the right mount every time, not a full scoop, about 2 thirds full or they will flow over the top and not look nice and i use the same amount mixture for those and it makes about 16cakes.x

Thank you next phase, both lists are good. I've got some of the ingredients on your list in so that's good.

I don't know why I thought it was me t to be so difficult then. I've got a couple of books, the Lorraine pascal baking made easy makes really nice brownies but that's the only thing I've tried.

Thanks for the tip nanny on the scoop! The lemon drizzle sounds yummy!

Saturday afternoons are baking times for our household.
I have a few recipes tried and tested and rarely stray from them. So be prepared to try a few things and be prepared for your clan not to like them or just be mad about the same old same old cake.
Favourites are lemon drizzle cake, brownie, fairy cakes and biscuits. I've had years of baking fairy cakes, I actually got to loathe them now, I made so many.
Once you learn the recipe you'll bake on an automated pilot. The best part is getting them to lick the bowl apparently.
Make it a tradition:)
I have two biscuit trays, a sqare-ish one for brownies, a round one for cake, two for fairy cakes/muffins and another round one for birthday cakes(detachable bottom).
Flour, sugar, eggs and butter are the staples.
It's really not that hard, give it a try.

How a go, you'll be amazed when you start cooking and how easy things are.

The hairy bikers lemon drizzle is fab and really easy as you make it in the food processor. I can't seem to get the link to copy across correctly but if you google 'hairy bikers lemon drizzle cake' it's the one on the waterstones site that you download. It's never gone wrong and I have more than my fair share of disasters. It even turned out ok when I misread the recipe and included the sugar for the topping in the cake mix!

Okay thank yoni think ill give the lemon drizzle ago. I would quite like to make some chewy cookies too but every time I've tried there hard

Try river cottage for chewy choc chip cookies.

If Mum and I make the same recipe, using the same ingredients, the results are different. So its really just a case of keeping trying lots of recipies, and seeing what happens.

Make notes on what worked, what doesn't, what needed extra cooking, and what was slightly over cooked. Otherwise you forget!

Standards here are 1-2-3 biscuits (MN recipie), choc chip cookies, choc brownies, blondies, metling moments, chocolate knots (dryish biscuit with grates choc in, dipped in chocolate), choc cake, marble cake, cherry cake, banana muffins, apple crumble, rocky road and "birthday cake" - any cake with icing, according to my 4 year old!

Enjoy

Thank you nextphase, I'm sure I've got an old notebook around somewhere that i can use to write in otherwise ill never remember

Nope, I just write on the recipe - then its always in the right place! Goes against all my defacing books principles, but since most recipes are on scraps of paper in MY recipe book, it doesn't matter!