Reactions to home baked cakes

Curry_Queen

Murtle wrote:

nah it must be vinegar.....

You could very well be right there!!!! I have an old family recipe for Xmas cake which has vinegar in it

Loadsabob

I think I must have been one of the last to actually cook in Home Economics. I'm 28 now. We made cheese scones, from scratch of course, and I made some lovely cheese and broccoli stuff that I stuffed croissants with (didn't make those, I think it was only a 45 minute lesson!)...pineapple upside down cake. We had recipes to make everything from scratch - oh, and pastry (I made it so nicely back then, but it turned into concrete the older I got!). I do recall some poor children being sent in with packet-mixes, but I think they were in the minority then.

These days I'm told it's a lot more like food marketing and product development than actual cooking. Such a shame!

And on the "Real Goodlife" programme last night, one teenager was disgusted that he was going to have to "use raw materials" to make meals!

It's terrifying! AND (shouldn't get me started!), I can't get over all these people who "don't have time to cook", who can talk for hours about the five hours of TV they watched the night before. Do me a favour!

But back to the original point, yes, I get some disbelief when I bring cakes to work. Sometimes because they think I'm too young to be interested in baking - then they tell me I'm old before my time! But people are always so grateful for home baking, just seems they rarely get to experience it these days, which is so sad... As IF Tesco could make cakes that are even HALF the quality of ours!!!!!!!!!

It's odd, the reason I'm into cooking and baking is because I love food, simple as that. I enjoy eating, I enjoy food, and I love to make lovely things without any rubbish in them. I can't imagine anyone who lives on packet foods really being interested in food at all; they're just interested in eating and filling up, not the food...

spendaholic

In our HE class we were starting to experiment with packet mixes. One of us would do the whisk method, for example, another would cream, and a third would use a packet.

Who said they had a problem getting cakes to rise? (I'll go and check and stick in an edit.) I have that problem too, but find that whisking rather than creaming helps. And perhaps a spot of baking powder too ...

EDIT: It was Lindsay_21 ... who I believe is now actually 22 ...

Queenie

Nope! Not carrot and nope not vinegar ....

... speaking of vinegar in cakes, especially Christmas Cake ... when we were doing Home Ec. ... we had to make a Christmas Cake and the teacher rabbited on about the reason it has so many eggs in it ... yadda yadda yadda ... being "clever", I put my hand up and told her that you could sub eggs with vinegar *preened* ... was promptly put down by the teacher!

Went home, asked my mum to write the recipe out - which she did ... took it in and *preened some more*

No, *this* ingredient is a real :eek: but OMG, it is DIVINE!!!!! :drool:

AND ....






... it's a :shhh: secret Unless, you guess LOL

Queenie

spendaholic wrote:

In our HE class we were starting to experiment with packet mixes. One of us would do the whisk method, for example, another would cream, and a third would use a packet.

Who said they had a problem getting cakes to rise? (I'll go and check and stick in an edit.) I have that problem too, but find that whisking rather than creaming helps. And perhaps a spot of baking powder too ...

It's all in the wrist action, m'dear FOLD, not whisk

rchddap1

When you have a father who has and allotment and a mother who took (and still does) great pride in making things it kind of became automatic for me to do the same. She would make lovely sponge cakes, coffee and walnut cake, and a mean lemon merigue pie (due to an extra lemon to make it really tangy). There would be sheperds pies, potatoes, carrots and peas that my Dad had grown.

I can't remember a single occasion when a packet would be grabbed and turned into tea. Mind you I hated Home Economics because the teacher was always telling me to be tidy. Never managed to learn that lesson...as my dear other half will testify.

raeble

Queenie wrote:

... speaking of vinegar in cakes, especially Christmas Cake ... when we were doing Home Ec. ... we had to make a Christmas Cake and the teacher rabbited on about the reason it has so many eggs in it ... yadda yadda yadda ... being "clever", I put my hand up and told her that you could sub eggs with vinegar *preened* ... was promptly put down by the teacher!

Does it matter what type of vinegar you use in cakes?

Queenie

My fruit cake had malt vinegar :drool:

Rage_in_Eden

I really like baking and even re-arranged my freezer last night so I can have a baking session on Thursday - when OH is at football and therefore the cakes will actually survive - and then put them in the freezer. I'd never done biscuits until about 18 months ago and now much prefer them to shop bought. I was always brought up that you should never put an oven on for one item but always put a pudding/cake etc in there - even now I'll go 'round the kitchen looking for things to make to put in the oven if it's on. :A My Mother would be so proud!! (and it would be her birthday today as well so I'm sure she's grinning that I am sounding off about this!). One other thing. I used to run a Brownie Pack for 17 long years. Mum was my Unit Helper and every Christmas we used to do between us a "proper" christmas party for 24 children plus their siblings if they were 1 year either side of Brownie age. Jelly, sandwiches, cheese on sticks etc and buns - all that sort of thing. Never saw an empty plate!!! I'm of the opinion that generally people will "dumb down" to whatever they get including shop bought custard - I soon weaned OH off that thank you very much!!! That said I do like pizza

rchddap1

Me like Pizza too....especially from my breadmaker. Other half has managed to find a way to make some garlic bread out of Pizza dough. He cuts a bit off, smashes up some garlic and smears it (with some button) on the extra bit of dough. Then simply rolls up the dough into a baguette type thing and sticks in the oven with the pizza.