what I need to start making cakes!!!!

[dobbo79]

Hi all, I adore making caked with DS, he has learning disabilities and enjoys this enormously. Friends etc ask me to make them, but I really want to start properly.

What items do I need?. I feel ad tho I'm always running to asda to get stuff!!!.

What would be s good starting kit?, including icings, frosting, decorations etc. And where is s great, cheaper place to pick stuff up.

Thanks for the help xx

Eggs, flour, margarine/ butter and sugar are your basics for sponge cakes then a little baking powder gives a better rise if you're using plain flour (not necessary with self raising) and you may like to add a dash of vanilla essence or lemon juice to add a bit of flavour. Alternatively replace a spoon of flour with coco powder for chocolate cakes.

For the base ingredients the value ranges are a good starting point. Aldi do a cheap caster sugar.

Home bargains do a cheap range of cake cases and flags etc. but places like Wilkinsons are also good.

Icing sugar for your frosting is a must. If you do ever run out if you've got a food processor you can make some by blitzing other sugar on pulse.

For decorations i check out the supermarkets each time i go in and buy when they're on offer. I find the value range sweets far cheaper and easier for the DC to handle for decorating. Things like mini smarties, dolly mixtures, chocolate buttons go down well.

Lidl do 100g bars of chocolate for about 35p. Every few months they have them at 19p so I stock up and melt as cake toppings or rough chop to go as chips in cakes/ muffins/ biscuits.

A good starting point for icing with DC is a freezer bag ( a little tougher than a sandwich bag) filled with icing then a small corner snipped off to pipe through.

Work out what sort of things you'd like to make then it'll be easier to make a list.

My DC like making cookies because they like to roll out and each choose their own shapes. I do a lot of cookies with golden syrup because they're a soft set and you can push sweets in as they come out the oven, no further decorating required then they're ready to eat in five minutes out the oven.

The basic ingredients of flour (self-raising), butter, sugar and eggs don't vary that much from cake to cake. I keep a box with food colourings and flavourings in it. A drop goes a long way so they last ages. Icing sugar is good to have around, as are a few sprinkles. Rather than using expensive little tubes of icing, a simple piping bag and some nozzles makes decoration easy.

The other thing is equipment. A good electric hand-mixer makes things easier and it's always worth buying the best quality non-stick tins you can afford. Nothing worse than making a lovely cake and it sticks to the tin.