Baking quick questions

iamana1ias

tanith wrote: »

I am intrigued how do your cakes rise if you use plain flour?

I use plain flour and add my own baking powder. That way I control how much is in there

**skinnyminny**

thankyou for the replies,i covered it with the cheap stuff i had and it looks quite good

the tesco one was 10" and £1.29 and saisburys also do a supercook 10" one but being sainsbugs is £1.52 but still nice and cheap:)

scotsgirl_3

I use equal weights of egg, caster sugar, SR flour and butter/marge, tsp baking powder, throw it all in a bowl and mix with my hand mixer. Never had a flat one - I have done this with my kenwood too, just the hand mixer tends to be less hassle!

Alcmene

Hi

You can use the Kenwood to add the flour!

Fold the flour in by hand using a METAL spoon. I went to a girls school and in Home Economics they always told us to fold with a metal spoon to minimise air release. Do no over-fold, just enough to make sure all the flour is incorporated.

Callie22

Is your oven hot enough? If it's not, and you're opening the door when you think the cake should be done, you might be introducing a big whoosh of cold air which will make even the best cake give up and lie down Or (and sorry for asking the obvious) are you opening the oven door frequently to check the cake? That can make for a flat cake too. Fan ovens can sometimes give you flat cakes too, if the fan is a bit too violent.

babyshoes

Hmm, interesting. Is your flour old? Could need a bit of baking powder if the raising agent is a bit past it.

My initial thought was a draught in the oven, perhaps from a seal which no longer seals!

Loulou2010

Alcmene wrote: »

Hi

You can use the Kenwood to add the flour!

Fold the flour in by hand using a METAL spoon. I went to a girls school and in Home Economics they always told us to fold with a metal spoon to minimise air release. Do no over-fold, just enough to make sure all the flour is incorporated.[/QUOTE]

same as... whenever i have used a mixer, they havent turned out so good

LandyAndy

greenbee wrote: »

Sounds like you might be overbeating the mixture. Add an egg, then a spoonful of flour, then another egg, then flour etc. Make sure you're beating slowly too - you just want to mix it all in, adding air rather than knocking the air out.

Watched 'the Great British Bake Off' earlier. Overbeating was given as the most likely cause of sponges collapsing.;)

Opening the oven door is also inadvisable.

zippychick

Hi Jazzy

I thought her recipe also had two teaspoons of baking powder in? You've had some really good ideas so far. Personally I don't like the idea of using a mixer to make a cake, it's too easy to over mix it , whereas by hand , not so much. I do it by hand and have never had one fail yet . I use the creaming method for butter and sugar, then add eggs one by one, then the flour and baking powder. I also add a splish or two of milk to make it a little bit runnier - maybe a couple of tablespoons worth

Hope you perfect it. I've added this to the baking quick questions thread to help others in future

let us know if you try again
Zip

jemimapd3

Hey, iam going to do some baking with my dd's today as we have no "treats" in the house and no pennies to get any! I have the basic ingredients to bake with, but I dont know what I can make that will last all week? my eldest wants cookies (and lots of them!) and my middle one wants to bake some muffins (can these be frozen?) and my ds is 10 months so he doesnt really know what he wants yet! I was thinking maybe some traybakes too, but as I said i dont know if these will freeze?
any suggestions would be gladly recieved
JPD
xxx