5 INGREDIENTS EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE

5 INGREDIENTS EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE :

Hello all of you. It's been a long time since a 'Baking Basics' article has been published on the blog. So I thought I should write one now. 

I have already written a detailed article titled HOW TO START BAKING?   for new bakers. It is a detailed description about the procedure one should follow if he/she is going to bake for the first time. Another important article you should have a look at is ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR BAKING. In this article, I have sum up the basic tools and equipments one should have to start baking. I hope you would enjoy reading these articles. 

A baker weather a home baker or a professional baker, should have some particular ingredients all the time with him. These ingredients form the basis of any baked delicacy. Ofcourse, depending upon what you are baking, the ingredients would differ but these are some of the constant  baking  ingredients which are needed no  matter what you bake. 

Now let's have a look at these 5 INGREDIENTS THAT EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE :

1) FLOUR - 

Flour is undoubtedly the most important baking ingredient. Anything you have to make weather it is a cake , cupcake or a cookie; flour is needed. Even if you have to make savoury baked delicacies like pizza, buns, breads, etc, you still need  flour. 

 HOW TO USE  FLOUR PROPERLY? 

Always remember friends, whenever you use flour, ALWAYS SEIVE IT. When you seive flour, it  makes it airy. This helps in making spongy cakes and cupcakes. Also when you would seive flour, baking powder or baking soda together, they would mix together nicely. 

If you want to make your baked items healthier,  you can replace flour with wheat flour. 

Thus always have flour if you want to bake. It is the basic ingredient which you would need everyrime you bake. 

2) Sugar - 

Sugar is another important ingredient for baking. Sugar is needed in cakes,  cupcakes, muffins, cookies, biscuits etc. You should use powdered sugar for baking. You can easily get powdered sugar in market. But if you don't get it, no problem. You can make it at home also. Take a blender and fill it with sugar. Grind it till it gets powdered. You can now easily use it for baking. For making tasty frostings for cakes and cupcakes, you need sugar as well. Thus sugar is an important ingredient. 

3) Butter - 

Butter is also required for baking. Butter provides mositure to the baked goods. It makes cakes and cupcakes spoongy and soft. Remember always USE BUTTER THAT IS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. This is a very important baking tip. 

Now, most of the recipes ask for creaming the butter and sugar till sugar dissolves in butter properly. Bakers usually use hand mixer for mixing butter and sugar  together. If you don't have a hand mixer, you can wisk butter and sugar together using a spatula as well. 

Like but

ter, oil is also an important ingredient as many recipes use oil instead of butter. 

Also for making buttercream frosting, butter is required in a good quantity. Thus always have butter if you are going to bake. 

4)  Eggs - 

Eggs also make cakes and cupcakes spongy. Eggs should also be used at room temperature. If you are vegetarian, then ofcouse you wouldn’t bake cakes using eggs. You can easily substitute eggs with other ingredients like banana, yogurt and oil. Below is a simple chart which shows the substitutes of an egg - 

You can use this chart to replace egg with ingredients like banana, yogurt and oil. In this way, you can easily bake cakes, cupcakes and many other things without eggs. 

5) Baking Soda and Baking Powder - 

Baking Powder and Baking  soda are the leavening agents. They help the batter to rise.  These are very very essential for  baking. Always keep in  mind that your baking powder and baking soda should be fresh. If they are expired,  they won't help your batter in rising. Therefore always use fresh Baking Powder and baking soda. 

Thus these are the 5 INGREDIENTS EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE.  

A SHORT NOTE ON CAKE TINS

Hello all of you. The main motive behind this blog is to help home bakers. Therefore I thought of posting about the basics of baking. I will try  to write at least one post related to Baking Basics every  week.

This week, the  topic is - Cake Tins

Cake tins,  also known as cake moulds, are the most important baking tool. We bake our cakes in cake tins. So this is probably the first baking cookware any person buys. So let's  first discuss the types of cake tins.

# Aluminium Cake Tin - 

Aluminium cake tin is the most common form of cake tin one would find in anyone's house. They come in different shapes like heart,  square,  round etc.

How to grease an aluminium cake tin? 

One thing to remember while using aluminium cake tin is to grease it. You can do this in two ways - 

# Put few drops of  oil in the tin. Using a brush or your hand,  spread this oil properly on the cake tin's surface. Coat both  the sides and the base of the cake tin. Now add a handful of  flour into the  cake tin. Tap the cake tin from all sides,  so that the flour tin gets coated with the flour. Tap on the back of the cake tin to remove any extra flour. 

# You can also use a butter paper. Properly put oil on your cake tin. Cut the butter paper according to the size of your cake tin. Press the butter paper properly in the  cake tin.

Now pour the cake batter in the tin. After the cake has baked, simply pull it out by holding the butter paper.

# Non stick cake tin - 

Non stick cake tin are the another category of cake tin. They also come in different shapes like round,  square,  heart etc. 

How to grease a nonstick cake tin? 

One benefit non stick cake tins have over aluminium cake tins, is that they don't need greasing. The cake batter can be  directly poured into the cake tin.

# Special kinds of cake tin -

Now there are some  unique cake tins. They are generally  not used by people unless and until they are truly fond of baking. They are used for making unique shaped cakes. For instance,  -  Look at this cake tin below. Isn't the cake baked in this tin beautiful? 

Source -  Pinterest

There are many other types of unique cake tins. For instance, if you are making a cake for children, you can opt for cake tins that come in the shape of a cartoon character. 

Source -  Pinterest

You can easily buy cake tins like these online. Disney princess themed cake tins,  winnie the pooh themed cake tin, mickey mouse themed cake tin etc are the some easily available cake tins for children themed cake. 

One of my favourite cake tin is pictured below. See it's so easy to use and after the cake has been baked, you get already cut slices. Isn't it nice?  You can pour in different cake batters in different slices. You can decorate each cake slice  in a different way. 

Source -  Pinterest 

Loaf cake tin is also a type of cake tin. It is used for baking breads or for making loaf cakes. You can buy it for giving your  cake a different shape. 

Source -  Pinterest 

So these are some of the unique cake tins. There are many more such cake tins. You can look for them online or in shops that solely deal in baking. 

Also read -

 How to start baking?

ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR BAKING

ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR BAKING

ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR BAKING  - 

Hello all of you.  Baking, as any other form of cooking, requires certain tools and equipments. I have written this post to summarise about the most basic baking tools and equipments. 

1. Cake Tins : 

Of course,  cakes are the most common baking recipe which any beginner wishes to try. Therefore cake tins are the most essential equipment a baker should have. Cake tins come in different shapes and sizes -  The most common shapes are square,  circle and heart.  The cake tins come in different sizes as well -  6 inch,  8 inch and even bigger. 

You can either buy an aluminium cake tin or a nonstick cake tin. If you buy an aluminum cake tin,  you will have to grease the cake tin before putting the cake batter into it; or will have to put a butter paper. Whereas a nonstick cake tin doesn't require any such preparation. You can directly put the cake batter into it. 

You may also need a muffin try if you wish to make muffins or cupcakes.  Again you can either buy an aluminum muffin tray or a nonstick muffin tray.

2. Borosil bowls : 

Borosil bowls are needed for making tasty pasta or a baked veg. Remember NEVER BAKE A CAKE IN A BOROSIL BOWL.  Your cake would not bake in a Borosil bowl. Borosil bowls are suitable for recipies like baked veg.

Borosil bowls also come in different shapes and sizes. The most common shape are round,  square and rectangle. You can buy it according to the size of your oven and the shape you prefer.

3. Baking Tray :

Most probably you will get this baking tray along with the OTG you buy.  The tray can be used for making cookies,  pizzas,  biscuits,  buns etc.

Also while making stuff like paneer tikka and kababs you can place this tray under the wire rack on which you will place your paneer tikkas. This will ensure that your oven does not get dirty as the marinate will fall while grilling the tikkas.

4. Spatula and brush :

Frankly you can continue with your baking without the spatula and brush.  You can use your very own spoons for folding the cake batter. But having spatula and brush makes baking easier and more convenient.

5. Hand mixer :

This is the MOST IMPORTANT THING.  Simply because it will mix your cake batter or will wisk your eggs very nicely. It comes with two types of attachments.  One is used for mixing sugar, butter or eggs. Another one is used for kneading dough.

6. Digital weighing scale :
It helps you to measure the ingredients accurately. You can measure your ingredients in different units.

So this is it. This is a short list of the most essential baking equipments. You can buy these stuffs from the market or online.


ALSO READ -

HOW TO START BAKING ?
ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR BAKING

How to start baking?

How to start baking ? 

“ Baking is a science which requires the mind of an artist. “

Hello all of you.  I truly believe in the above written line. Baking is a science as it consists of proper measurement of ingredients,  time and temperature.  It requires an artist as it belongs to the category of 'food'  which obviously is a visual art. 

I have started this blog 'Delighted Baking'  to help people who wants to bake but have certain doubts may be regarding the recipies or the baking tools or anything else. I also want to act as a guide cum friend for home bakers who have their basics clear and want to improve or learn more. 



Lets come back to our current topic -  How to start baking? 
First of all,  the most common doubt people usually have is whether we can bake in a microwave or not?  From my experience, I can tell you all that microwave is not suitable for baking.  I had also tried baking in the microwave but the results were not at all satisfactory. I am not saying that the cake didn't bake, the cake baked, but not properly. So it is important to have an OTG if you want to bake nicely. If you just have to bake once or twice a year then microwave is fine. But if you are passionate about baking and want to become a nice home baker or may be a professional baker in future, an OTG is must.

Secondly, have some basic tools that are necessary for baking. For beginning,  you can just buy a cake tin,  preferably non stick cake tin as this will save you from oiling the cake tin or putting  a butter paper,  and a hand grinder.

⏩ ALSO READ -

  ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR BAKING
  A SHORT NOTE ON CAKE TINS

Now the most important thing to keep in mind -  Try the easiest recipe on your 1st baking attempt. As the baking bug bites you,  you are tempted to try a nice choclate ganache or the lemon drizzle cake but please don't. Simply because if your first ever attempt fails,  it will leave you disheartened and will lower down your passion for baking. I would suggest to start with a simple recipe like a vanilla sponge cake or lets say a simple choclate cake.

Follow the recipe to the core. Don't try to mend the recipe according to you. Also always preheat your oven. Preheating the oven means heating the oven for 10 -  15 minutes to prehare the oven for baking.  Also set the temperature and the time as given in the recipe.

So all the best.  Start your baking journey. If you have any doubt at any point,  feel free to contact me.

Bon appetite!