Scratch Baking - Newbie needs help!!!

Hi all, well I have decided to venture into the world of scratch cake baking... because....well....I have never baked a cake from scratch....ever!!!! (other baked goods from scratch yes, bread, cookies, biscuits, buns) and if truth be told I am not even sure I have ever EATEN a scratch cake (sad isn't it?), I grew up on box mix, my mother made all kinds of biscuits and buns from scratch but can't remember her ever making a cake,

So if anyone has a favorite recipe they could share with me I would oh so appreciate it.

I have been inspired partly from the Scratch vs. Box mix discussion...I am seeing die hard scratch bakers giving doctored mixes a go and so thought I would see what the scratch bakers are talking about!!! I am going to go back through that thread and see what tips I can pick up.

I remember, Jeanne (I am pretty sure, and her cakes are so lovely) saying that best results come from weighing your ingredients, but I don't have a scale yet (its only my list) so the first one I am just going to measure and the next I will weigh, then I can see the difference Jeanne was talking about. Any other tips you want to throw in would be great, I may not get to it til next weekend but definitely going to give scratch cake baking a whirl!!!

Thank you for your help!!!
Sherry

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Permalink Reply by ann pallett on July 11, 2010 at 9:32am

Good for you Sherry.
Here's my all time favourite chocolate cake. You don't need a machine for this one too,

200 gr plain flour
200 gr caster sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarb of soda
200 gr unsalted butter (room temp)
Put all the above in a bowl and mix till just combined.
In another bowl measure out :-
40 gr cocoa powder
150 mls sour cream
2 medium eggs
1 vanilla extract
Whisk these ingredients together then add to the flour,sugar and butter mix. mix till smooth. Place mixture in 2x 8" round tins and bake for 20-25 mins (fan)160 deg C

Enjoy Sherry

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Permalink Reply by Theresa Happe on July 11, 2010 at 9:57am

I have been teaching both my girls to bake and I think these are some basic things that newbies tend to overlook:

Be sure to read the recipe over a few times before you start. This sounds dumb, but you'd be surprised how many mistakes you can make if you bake as you read the recipe.

If a recipe calls for cake flour, don't use all purpose flour. You won't get the same result. Also, beware that many cake flours already have baking powder added. I buy Soft-as-silk, because it doesn't have baking powder added. This could mess up your recipe.

Don't start off by making substitutions. Get the hang of scratch baking first. It's really not like cooking. Everything is chemistry and you have to understand how you will alter your batter by making changes in the ingredients.

I could probably think of more things to tell you, but the coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

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Permalink Reply by Diana Viera on July 11, 2010 at 11:38am

Hi Sherry ~ Good for you for giving scratch baking a try.

I agree with Theresa on reading the recipe at least twice and not just the ingredients.

Have all your ingredients measured out first before combining things together or you may have forgotten to take something out or add something in. (It has happened to me before.)

Most definitely pay attention to the type of flour the recipe calls for.

The one thing that I like to do, which some recipes call for and some do not, is when you start to toss in your wet ingredients and your dry to the mixer (ex: milk), do 1/3 dry then 1/3 wet ~ let that combine well then do the same again until you end with the wet. I believe it does make a difference and your cakes come out beautiful.

Although I do like the WASC recipes, which I use when I don't go 100% scratch, there are certain recipes that I have in which I refuse to make if they are not from scratch. You will find that as you start to experiment.

Good luck on your journey and remember to ENJOY what you are doing. Have fun with it!!!

~Diana

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Permalink Reply by Jeanne on July 11, 2010 at 1:50pm

Defintely start with a chocolate cake. White cake is the hardest to get right in the scratch baking world. I really like The Double Chocolate Layer Cake on the Epicurious website. It is moist and delicious and comes out perfect everytime. It's a big recipe though so you might want to 1/2 it your first go around. It will make a 10" cake (2 layers). It's so good though.

Make sure you aerate your flour. Don't scoop and compact it. If you can weigh it out even better. But always run a whisk through your flour and then spoon it into the measuring cup and level it. This will help be sure you don't over do it on the flour... such a bad thing for scratch cakes. I am different than Diane whereas I do 1/3 dry, 1/2 wet, 1/3 dry, 1/2 wet, and end with the dry. It works for me. (though with the double chocolate layer cake you just add all of the dry to the wet)

Most importantly though... have fun.

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Permalink Reply by Wes & Jaci on July 11, 2010 at 4:38pm

Good for your sherry , Im sure you will do very well with making cakes from scratch ,

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Permalink Reply by SeriousCakes on July 11, 2010 at 7:02pm

I'll put these up, this chocolate cake is perfectly for a beginner because it's so easy and I've never had it fail once:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SeriousCakes#p/u/22/RuuPdhhh1UY
And here's the yellow cake:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SeriousCakes#p/u/38/fYQ-dryteww

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Permalink Reply by Stampinsher on July 12, 2010 at 5:46pm

As I read Ann's reply besides so many other recipes that I've fallen into that have Grams vs. U.S. measurements. I found this Gram Conversion Calculator by google.

I have not yet ventured into making a recipe with the conversion calculator, I thought I would add this for convenience only.

Link:
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cooking-conversions/gram-conversions.aspx

I've made SeriousCakes' recipes and they are terrific! So easy to follow and tastes great!

Congratulation Sherry for giving it a chance! I know you will love it. For the most part, I've used boxed cake mixes and on special recipes I have followed, they were scratch. I love it making it from scratch and I still have lots of box mixes that I used too for cakes/cupcakes and some of my recipes that are modified with a mix, (our little secret, LOL). Box mixes especially that are less sugar, taste great and so moist and light.

Have fun!

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Permalink Reply by Jeanne on July 12, 2010 at 5:52pm

Oooh... be VERY careful with that. I just looked quick, but when it converted 1 (us) cup to grams it gave 229.92 grams... 1 cup of AP flour does NOT translate to 200+ grams. It's 125-ish grams (cake flour is less). That could seriously screw up a recipe. Your best bet is to weigh out a measure cup of flour a few times and take the average.

Stampinsher said:

As I read Ann's reply besides so many other recipes that I've fallen into that have Grams vs. U.S. measurements. I found this Gram Conversion Calculator by google.

I have not yet ventured into making a recipe with the conversion calculator, I thought I would add this for convenience only.

Link:
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cooking-conversions/gram-conversions.aspx

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Permalink Reply by Stampinsher on July 12, 2010 at 6:58pm

Gee, isn't that funny! When I place in the first selection of 200 grams convert to US cup, it says 0.87. Is that not correct by your weight or measurements, Jeanne? I would really like to know because there are a lot of recipes that I liked and wanted to convert.
Please remember, I do not have a scale so it would be a US Cup.
TIA

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Permalink Reply by Jeanne on July 12, 2010 at 9:23pm

Nope... that is WAY off... almost double.

For AP flour I use 130 grams = 1 cup

I'd go grab a scale... you can get a cheap one at WalMart. I think mine was $10 and it's digital.

=]

Stampinsher said:

Gee, isn't that funny! When I place in the first selection of 200 grams convert to US cup, it says 0.87. Is that not correct by your weight or measurements, Jeanne? I would really like to know because there are a lot of recipes that I liked and wanted to convert.
Please remember, I do not have a scale so it would be a US Cup.
TIA

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Permalink Reply by Jeanne on July 12, 2010 at 9:28pm

That site has a better conversion calculator though...

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cooking-conversions/cooking-conversion...

it's a bit of a pain, flour is under the cereal grains and pasta I believe, but it's accurate

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Permalink Reply by Stampinsher on July 13, 2010 at 3:45pm

Jeanne,
If you look at the recipe above, it says 200 gr. that is the number I placed into the conversion. I was not asking anything about what 1 cup equals to grams.

So perhaps I was not clear in my typing above but I believe both sites says the same thing for the conversion measurements in the recipe above when using the numbers 200 gr.

I also know that the site that I found says that 1 cup of AP Flour equal 125 gr. which is pretty close to your 130 gr per cup.

You are so right trying to find AP Flour on the site that you recommend is a lot more clicks to find and on the other site that I suggested it is stated on the page with many other common used ingredients just by scrolling down. Really easy to find.

This just shows me how important it is to read everything and to double check measurements.
Thanks for the additional site for a second verification. I will use it both sites for confirmation should I ever have the need to convert.

Jeanne said:

Nope... that is WAY off... almost double.

For AP flour I use 130 grams = 1 cup

I'd go grab a scale... you can get a cheap one at WalMart. I think mine was $10 and it's digital.

=]

Stampinsher said:
Gee, isn't that funny! When I place in the first selection of 200 grams convert to US cup, it says 0.87. Is that not correct by your weight or measurements, Jeanne? I would really like to know because there are a lot of recipes that I liked and wanted to convert.
Please remember, I do not have a scale so it would be a US Cup.
TIA

Scratch Baking - Newbie needs help!!!

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