to measure all of your ingredients extremely accurately for good results.
And then comes the oven… I prefer to bake on just one shelf at a time where possible. Loading your oven with cakes makes the temperature drop significantly and they can then take longer to bake through. A shelf positioned a third of the way up from the bottom of the oven is the best place for a cake to bake. The hot air of the oven needs to circulate around the tins for even baking – so don’t overload the shelf either, cheeky monkeys! If a tin is too close to the walls or door of the oven then the cake will brown faster on one side than the other.
Most ovens will run slightly hot or slightly cool. If you were cooking a joint of beef it’s not going to make a huge difference but in baking a cake things will quickly go wrong. A removable oven thermometer takes out the guesswork and is a great investment if you’re baking regularly. Set it on the shelf you plan to bake on and preheat your oven. Read the temperature on the thermometer and then adjust the oven controls until the thermometer shows the correct temperature for your recipe.
It’s very difficult to write absolutely precise times for baking; every oven is different and moist ingredients can differ in their water contents. Plan on the 5 minute rule – checking it 5 minutes before bake time is up and then checking every 5 minutes after if it needs a little longer.
When fully baked a cake should be tested by touching with the fingertips – it should be light and springy to the touch. If you insert a skewer into the cake it should come away clean, without any cake mixture sticking to it. If not, it needs a little longer in the oven.
If your cake isn’t quite ready you’ll see uncooked mixture clinging to your skewer.
Once the cake is cooked a skewer should come out clean, or with just a few crumbs of cooked cake clinging to it.
Lining a round tin
1. To line a round tin cut a strip of baking (parchment) paper a little larger than the circumference of your tin (all the way around the sides) and approx. 10cm (4in) deep. Make a fold along the long edge, 1.5cm (5⁄8in) up from the bottom edge, crease well and unfold. Snip at a 45 degree angle from the bottom up to the crease, repeating the snips at 1cm (3⁄8in)intervals all the way along. The angled snips will help the paper curve around the tin.
2. Now cut a circle of paper for the base of the tin. If you have a loose-bottomed tin, draw around the base and cut out exactly on the line. Otherwise draw around the tin and cut out just inside the line.
3. Lightly greasing the tin before adding the paper will help it stick in position. Fit the collar around the inside of the tin: the crease should sit directly at the bottom of the tin with the snipped part sitting on the base. Finally add the circle to the base and you’re ready to bake.
Lining a loaf tin
1. To line a loaf tin, cut a rectangle 2.5 times the open width and 1.5 times the length.
2. Push the paper into the loaf tin to roughly mark where the bottom corners of the tin are. Remove and cut diagonally from the very corner of the paper to the corner crease mark. Repeat for each of the corners.
3. Set the paper into the tin and cut away any excess at the corner folds and around the top. As with round tins, greasing the loaf tin lightly will help the paper stay straight in the tin!
TIP
If you bake regularly then having a supply of paper loaf liners and pre-cut baking paper circles is great and will take the faff out of cutting your own!
TIP
Greasing sprays, also know as cake release, are fairly easy to get hold of now and make greasing tricky tins like Bundts super easy.
Preparing a shaped Bundt tin
It’s infuriating when you’ve baked a cake and then can’t get it out of the tin (except with a chisel!).
A really good greasing will help when it comes to turning out a cake and for shaped tins such as a Bundt it’s important to get into every nook and cranny. Once baked the cake should be cooled a little in the tin before turning out (approx. 30 mins). This allows the structure of the cake to firm up so it doesn’t fall apart. It should then be turned out onto a serving plate or cooling rack and left to cool completely. Don’t leave it to cool fully in the Bundt tin otherwise it’ll never come out!
Troubleshooting
My cake has come out wonky!
Unevenly risen cakes can happen for a number of reasons. For me it’s most likely that the oven shelf isn’t level – the first step is to check! They can also rise unevenly if the raising agent (bicarbonate of soda or baking powder) is old and losing it’s efficacy or hasn’t been dispersed through the cake mixture evenly.
My mixture has curdled…
It’s important that all the ingredients are at room temperature when working them together. If the butter or eggs are too cold it can result in a curdled mixture. Add the eggs slowly, beating well after each addition, to allow the mixture to aerate rather than becoming a liquid sloppy state. Mix, mix, mix is the key to avoiding the dreaded curdle! Adding something very acidic to a cake mix such as lemon juice will cause a curdle. At the end of the day don’t worry too much – it’s best avoided if you can but if not your cake will still turn out pretty well!
My cake has a volcano effect on top
The oven might have been too hot or the cake too high up in the oven – this can also be the cause of cakes burning on the top. The crust has baked and set before the cake mixture in the centre, and as it bakes through the mixture expands. As it has nowhere else to go it bursts through the top, creating the volcano dome effect. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your cakes whilst baking, peeking through the oven door if you can and if they’re beginning to brown too much cover with a sheet of foil for the remaining baking time, or dropping the oven temperature just slightly. Domed cakes can generally be rescued by slicing off the top and disguising with icing.
My cake top has a crunchy ‘skin’
This will happen if the butter and sugar weren’t worked into the cake mixture well enough. The butter and sugar can end up on the top of the cake as you scrape the bowl clean of cake mixture. Make sure your