How to become good at baking

[AfterTheRainComesSun]

I want to start baking more as DD seems to like it and I think it's a lovely indoor activity to do together. I have fond memories of helping my mum bake in the kitchen and still remember the magic of it all: the vanilla smell, her vintage hand written recipe notebook, sieving flour etc...
How can I become good at it though? I am really hopeless, always seem to do something wrong whenever I try! And how can I make it magical for DD too?

Please also share tips on best baking equipment, what brands should I look into? I only have very basic stuff and could do with a few new items, especially mixing bowls, cake tins and things like spatulas etc.

Thank you!

Try Sara Lewis Children's Book of Baking. Full of easy recipes

Baking has a lot in common with chemistry! What helps one succeed is being precise with measurements and being able to follow a recipe exactly. Using the correct ingredients as given and not trying to substitute something else. Then practice makes perfect!

As for baking equipment, spending a lot of money on expensive brands won't make you a better baker, but you do need the basics. I have mixing bowls of 3 sizes, a flour sifter, cake and bread tins of various sizes, a hand held electric mixer, a set of measuring jugs and spoons, a pastry brush, wooden spoons, large and small rolling pins, baking trays and a muffin tray.

I'm sure there are many things I've forgotten (don't bake a lot now due to various food intolerances) but get yourself a good basic recipe book, too.

What goes wrong?

Oh, and enjoy! Even if you make a mess and things don't come out perfect you are creating wonderful memories for your daughter - you never know, she may love it and become a better baker than you in time. 😊

@CrunchyCarrot thank you! yes I didn't mean fancy expensive stuff but I really need a bit more as only have few old items and am missing lots of essentials. I think having some new equipment will motivate me to try and do it more!

Get a flat bed digital scale with tare (re-set and weigh with something on it) function.

Then you can use any bowl etc, weigh extra items in if you re-set it.

As the previous poster said, baking is science! Adding what you think is 150g sugar isn't going to work. It needs to be right, weigh it.
Don't use American recipes using cup measures, they are too variable and open to error.

Try a Good Housekeeping baking book, they are tested and tested to work.

@CurlewKate all sorts... either things are cooked on the outside but still raw in the inside, consistency is wrong etc. I think it's because as PP said it's chemistry and I often take the freedom to just free style it a bit or don't have all the ingredients but do it anyway lol

I'm a big fan of Nigella Lawson for baking - her recipes tend to just work.

The Bero Flour cookbook is also good - clear, simple, basic recipes.

I'd try starting out with simple recipes - chocolate crispy cakes are pretty forgiving, as is Tiffin/Rocky Road. The key thing for those is that the ratios aren't as rigid as for other recipes as they aren't relying so much on actual chemical reactions.

Then after that I'd try something like shortbread, which uses simple ratios.

In terms of kit, I think a handheld mixer (mine was about £15 from Kenwood about 10 years ago) will be likely to be the most useful investment.

I think then the other key tips for me are:

Lower the oven temperature if your oven is a fan oven.

Sifting flour/icing sugar/cocoa is annoying, and you can sometimes manage without doing it, but failure to sift is usually more annoying.

If in doubt, line your tins as well as greasing them.

Remember baking is mainly a science - find good recipes, follow the instructions and see what happens. Once you have your baking output you can then diagnose and change the recipe to improve the output.

E.g. Self raising flour is just plain flour mixed with baking powder. Baking powder reacts with water to produce CO2 (which is what makes cakes rise). So if your SR flour has been in the cupboard for ages it's not likely to rise well, as the water in the air may have reacted with the flour. If you add too much baking powder you can taste it. But often you can get away with adding an extra teaspoon, which makes sure your cakes have a lovely rise but doesn't impact the taste.

I totally agree that you need to measure for baking. I also think that tried and tested recipes ( soften real butter don’t use modern spreadable for example) and knowing your oven are important.
I was a better cook than a baker. Suddenly at 50 I can do both. I think practise and knowing what works - realising people come up with new ways of doing stuff to sell their cookery books rather than it being an improvement.

1. As previous posters have said - precision is key.

1. (As long as not vegan) always use proper butter

1. Good baking means all the fat and all the sugars. Treats aren't supposed to be healthy 😬

1. Don't over mix if making sponge mixture. You get better at judging when it's just combined enough.

1. Keep checking the oven before the stated time is up.

1. Try Nigella. Her recipes are usually divine.

Buy a Mary Berry or Good Housekeeping book. Do exactly what they say. Job done.

I occasionally make a cake from the baking sections at the back of more general cooking books and they are always hit and miss.

If you want to spend £££ then the Delia Smith range of cake tins + liners is amazing but sadly not dishwasher safe. DH has not forgiven me for this.

I recently bought Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake book (published circa 1994) and it is so easy to follow - every bake has come out perfectly when I used to be hopeless!

i bake a ton and I NEVER sift flour and its fine. (icing sugar should probably be sifted but I don't bother either. I don't care if my stuff doesn't LOOK perfect though)

My advice: scales. You can't go too wrong if you weigh the flour, sugar, etc.

Make sure ingedients are in date.

Start with simple one bowl cake and cookie recipes.

Ovens can be funny, if cake is burning on the outside and raw inside, lower temp.

I've had to learn the hard way to follow recipes EXACTLY. If it says to use cold butter, use cold butter, don't try to speed up the process by melting it a bit. If it says don't overmix, then don't try to get the world's smoothest dough. Measure exactly, no free hand pouring. No reducing the sugar content to make it a bit healthier (because that changes the way the dough will rise and the consistency of the final product). Not easy if you're used to cooking quite freestyle!

Get a Dorling Kindersley Children's Cookery Book or similar with step by step pictures and clear instructions. Read the introductions about equipment etc and read the recipe fully before you start (very important but lots don't)

Try simple things first and follow the instructions and look at the pictures too. Some of it will be trial and error so don't be disheartened if it doesn't look exactly like the picture. Your DD won't mind if she's enjoying the togetherness.

Ovens vary so you'll need to get used to yours eg is it a bit hotter, which shelf to use etc. Also, when baking, weigh the ingredients accurately as the end results depend on the balance of eg fat to flour and sugar. Too much or too little can lead to disappointment.

The main thing is to have a go and follow the instructions and build up your confidence. You've got complete control over those pesky ingredients!

I get what PPs are saying about butter and of course it's the best for flavour. But even Mary Berry has said you can get a good result (moist, soft etc) using baking spreads like Stork. They are easy to work with .
This is Mary Berry"s crunchy topped lemon drizzle cake. It's quick, easy and excellent.
https://www.cookingwithmykids.co.uk/lemon-drizzle-cake/

I think it's because as PP said it's chemistry and I often take the freedom to just free style it a bit or don't have all the ingredients but do it anyway lol

That definitely won't work. It's not like making, for example, a bolognese where it doesn't matter really if you put in some extra tomato, or there's not quite enough garlic (obviously it would taste different but it would still work).

Make sure to read the recipe, & follow it. Start with something simple. You can also find baking videos on YouTube where they'll go through step by step so you can see the consistency at each stage as well, so you know what you're aiming for. Waitrose has some nice ones, but there are loads.

My top tips-

• always use blocks of real butter, never margarine unless stated
• try not to overmix, folding in usually means with a spatula
• stick to the recipe until you get some good skills, making your own substitutions can ruin the whole thing

-always measure with an electric scale. American recipes usually come in cups so I would avoid those for now -learn how to test whether what you're making is done. I find the springback test far more accurate than a toothpick for sponges

My favourite baking items:

-rubber spatulas (IKEA do one for £1 and it's the perfect spatula, not too stiff or floppy)
-a stand mixer, not essential but a real life saver when making doughs or whipping eggs etc
-a set of measuring spoons
-an electric scale

I am old school and either use recipe books or print out recipes from the internet, so I will write notes about things like whether it needed more or less flavourings, if the baking time was right, which baking tins I used, how many portions it actually made etc etc.

Im usually rubbish at sponge cakes but this olive oil cake was so easy and turned out brilliantly. Olive oil cake

I’ve learnt ;
If you want something denser and fudgey - chewy biscuits or some cakes use soften butter or margarine.
If want crisp biscuits or a firm outside like choux buns use butter.

Also white caster sugar is sweeter than brown soft sugar. Cane sugar (Tate and Lyle or Billingtons ) are supposed to be better than beet sugar ( silver spoon). The environmental cost of imported sugar isn’t worth it to me.

Go with simple recipes.

Start with cookies, gingerbread, cupcakes etc.

Use a good quality ingredients- unsalted butter, brown sugar.

I make my own bread every weekend, it's easy, tasty and satisfying. I slice and freeze it, so no issues with wastage. I got a couple of new Tala tins from Amazon recently.
Muffins are a good bet to make with the little ones, I find.

You so also need the right size tin. I was moping at DM because my banana bread always came out burnt and also raw and she took one look at my loaf pan and said ‘but that’s the wrong size’. Problem solved!

I think half of good baking for novices is good recipes. There's alot of great ones out there, but also alot of bad, and if you are inexperienced you might not realise if proportions are off, or texture of batter seems wrong... Hummingbird Bakery, Janes Patisserie, Cupcake Jemma all have brilliant, reliable, recipes for people who are not confident. BBC food I find incredibly inconsistent in recipe quality, but they have reviews, so read them beforehand.

I can't recommend the book Short & Sweet by Dan Lepard highly enough, it is fairly thick, but really covers the bases of baking - bread, cakes, cookies, traybakes, pastry, sweet, and savoury. I have had reliably good results from this book. In the intro for each chapter, such as cakes, he will discuss each ingredient (butter, flour, sugar, eggs...) and what purpose they serve and how they affect a recipe. For me this understanding has made me a better baker.

As PP have said you don't need much equipment. Electric scale, electric mixer (hand or stand), rubber spatula, balloon whisk, measuring spoons, and large bowl - I like stainless steel as they are light, heat safe so can be used for Bain Marie, and dishwasher safe too.

I only sift if making something like macarons and consider my bakes very good. I also don't always use butter, many of my cakes I use stork to great success, though obviously not for things like buttercream! So while the tips given above are peoples own experience don't take everything too seriously, as different things work for different people.

Good advice already, but here are some more tips:

1. Buy an oven thermometer and check that your temperature readings are correct
2. Weigh your ingredients exactly. The flatbed scale suggestion is excellent
3. Use the correct size baking tin(s) as specified in the recipe
4. Use the correct oven temperature
5. Use ingredients at room temperature unless otherwise specified
6. Use large eggs
7. Grease and line your tins with baking parchment
8. Use a timer then test your cake with a skewer. If it comes out clean it is ready
9. Cool in the tin(s) for a few minutes before turning out.

10. I use tub Stork for most of my baking and it always turns out fine. You only need butter where the flavour is paramount e.g. shortbread. 11. Use vanilla paste, not vanilla extract or flavouring 12. Basically, don't wing it. It doesn't work with baking.