Minibit (And Minibit's Mom)'s baking tips!

[Minibit]

Y'all seemed to like the clothing tips...

My mom used to make wedding cakes! I learned a lot about baking from her and blame her completely for my persistent sweet tooth :3 Maybe some of these are common sense, but I like talking about cakes and stuff so leave me alone >=3

1. When icing a cake, spread a very little bit of icing over the top to 'glue' down crumbs and give yourself a matte surface.
   
   
2. You know how when you bake a cake, the top rounds out a bit? Cut it straight with a knife, and then use the trimmed bit in the icing layer to make a taller cake!
   
   
3. There is no shame in using cake mix. And when using cake mix, add everything in the bowl together and mix it with a fork before you beat it properly. This will stop the mix from poofing up at you.
   
   
4. If you want black icing, start with chocolate or fudge icing and add equal parts black and red to it.
   
   
5. Always beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy before adding dry ingredients
   
   
6. When beating ingredients, add the dry stuff a spoonful at a time to reduce poofage
   
   
7. When icing, spoon a nice thick line of icing onto a sheet of saran wrap (or cellophane as you americans like to call it) and roll that up; then place the saran bag into the icing bag - less mess later!
   
   
8. When icing, rest (no weight, just sitting there) one finger on the tip to reduce shaking
   
   
9. When icing, never let the tip touch the cake/cookie/whateverthehellyou'reicing. Instead, squeeze out some icing, let that touch the cake, and then move the tip above the cake while continuously squeezing.
   
   
10. Whenever possible, use whole - or at the VERY least 2% - milk for baking. The fat content is a chemical necessity in the baking process, and you're already making sweets, now is not the time to get calorie-conscious. Same goes with margarine; just use butter.
    
    
11. Buttercream icing is just butter, cream (or whole milk in a pinch), and icing sugar. You're welcome.
    
    
12. Always lay fruit on a piece of paper towel before using it for cake filling - this will keep the juices from making your cake all soggy
    
    
13. When icing with whip cream, it's a good idea to 'line' the cake like in Tip 1 with proper icing to keep the whip cream from sliding off or making the cake all soggy
    
    
14. Tears in pie shells/pastry can be mended by dampening with a LITTLE bit of water, and pinching together with fingers or a fork
    
    
15. Piping a duo-tone icing is as easy as simply making two lines of icing next to each other with the saran trick

 

[Ruko]

I knew a couple of these, but the rest are genius! Perfect timing too. I'm making a cake tomorrow, gonna have to experiment with these. I've been trying to convince my sister to use butter for years but she insists that margerine is what makes a cake taste good -_-

 

[Laggy Lagiacrus]

Whenever I try to bake, I always mange to burn everything. The strange thing is that it always happens before I even put it in the oven.

That said, these should make for a fantastic cake. Possibly one that won't set off the smoke alarm before I've fired anything up.

 

[Kitty]

Gosh my 4th of July tips are going to be great now. Thanks! <3

 

[LunaValentine]

Yay! baking tips! More excuses to make sweets! nom nom nom!

 

[Rainjay]

A few years back a friend and I tried making a two layer cake for my birthday. I learnt a good chunk of tools just by watching Cake Boss. She didn't want to believe me a lot of the time but we still used some of the tricks. We used mix (lazy children!) and had to cut the top off of one of them (it didn't work out well) and then it took forever to get the crumb coat to set (we put it in the fridge in hopes it would set faster so when we tried to add the next layer, it didn't still pull up crumbs) and that didn't quite work. I think we used too little icing for it. But we still got the last coat in (and I don't think we really put an icing layer between the two cakes out of lack of icing) and vaguely decorated it.

So it worked out well until we brought it along to a water park and kept it in a cake box in the ice box. All the melted ice somehow leaked into the box and soaked the cake. We still ate it tho ;3

 

[R-9 Pilot]

I'll add the common-sense baking tip that one should always measure things by weight/mass, if possible. It's more accurate than doing so by volume, and since baking can be very dependent on chemistry, as opposed to other cooking applications, it's very important to get everything measured out just right.

And, one I am happy to discover recently for bread: if you want to get that nice crust onto a home-made baguette, put a cast iron skillet on the bottom rack in the oven before you preheat it. Then toss about half a cup of ice cubes into the skillet right when you put the bread in to bake.

 

[Minibit]

A few years back a friend and I tried making a two layer cake for my birthday. I learnt a good chunk of tools just by watching Cake Boss. She didn't want to believe me a lot of the time but we still used some of the tricks. We used mix (lazy children!) and had to cut the top off of one of them (it didn't work out well) and then it took forever to get the crumb coat to set (we put it in the fridge in hopes it would set faster so when we tried to add the next layer, it didn't still pull up crumbs) and that didn't quite work. I think we used too little icing for it. But we still got the last coat in (and I don't think we really put an icing layer between the two cakes out of lack of icing) and vaguely decorated it.

So it worked out well until we brought it along to a water park and kept it in a cake box in the ice box. All the melted ice somehow leaked into the box and soaked the cake. We still ate it tho ;3

:0 such delicious chaos!

When cutting the top off, I find it helps to start by shaving it in layers so you don't cut on an angle or take off too much. It takes lots of practice to do it in one cut!

If you put an un-iced cake in the fridge you should wrap it in Saran first or the fridge fans will dry it out! Never put a hot or warm cake in the fridge; it needs to cool naturally.

If your 'glue layer' wasn't holding, it might have been because:

• The cake was still warm
• Not enough icing was used
• There was too much pressure when spreading the icing, causing more crumbs to pop up

Baking with friends is the best - I wish you and your buddy better luck on your next venture!