Here’s a quick post on my basic cake baking method; it’s a general tutorial for how to make any cake or cupcake batter. This is the process I go by for nearly all of my cake making adventures, and I’ve found it really useful to use this whenever I’m creating a cake recipe of my very own. So you should just memorize it. Right now. Enjoy! And be sure to check out my list of baking tips as well! A…
One of my favorite things to do for a person’s birthday is to make them a custom cake flavor based on what their favorite sweets are. I recently asked a friend what her favorites were, and since she said “strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet,” I decided to take the first three and make Neapolitan cupcakes! These are pretty simple to make, actually. I just made a half yield of my vanilla and chocolate cake recipes and then made strawberry…
So what exactly is the difference between baking powder and baking soda? Baking powder is quite often just baking soda (a weak alkali) + cream of tartar (an acid salt) + cornstarch (an inert starch). Baking soda needs an acid elsewhere in the ingredients list to neutralize it. (Otherwise it will leave a weird alkaline flavor behind.) Recipes that call for baking soda usually also call for something acidic like buttermilk or lemon juice to do the neutralizing. In the…
So this is a post on my favorite cake baking tips—the 8 best tips to memorize for whenever you’re baking cake or cupcakes. This post goes along well with my post about a general cake baking method. These are just tips that I’ve picked up over the years and have found to be really useful. I hope you’ll find this list useful as well! MY FAVORITE CAKE BAKING TIPS If you can afford it, work with some higher-end ingredients when…
Did you know that you can use finely ground almonds, pistachios, etc. instead of flour when you’re baking? All you need is a food processor (I use a Ninja blender/food processor) to grind whatever kind of nut you’re using. This is great if you want to reduce your gluten intake, are aiming for a lighter flavor, or just want to give your dessert a slightly nutty flavor to whatever it is you are baking. And hey, it helps you get…
Over the weekend I did some baking experimentation by replacing some of the flour in my old vanilla cupcake recipe with finely ground pistachios (using the method I describe here). The result was a delicious and lightly pistachio-flavored cupcake! I topped it off with some white chocolate cream cheese frosting. The taste? Pure heaven. See below for both the cake and frosting recipes. I promise they’re fantastic! Pistachio Cake or Cupcakes Makes 12 cupcakes or enough batter for one 9″…