Common Baking Mistakes?

Roseheart · Apr 3, 2012

Hi, all,

So I'm fairly new to baking and the other day I made a cake which was pretty disastrous. It tasted all right, but it went quite flat and the sugar I dusted the cake tin with had caramelized, which it wasn't meant to do. I looked it up and realised that it was probably flat because I opened the oven door quite a lot to check on it, which I read you weren't meant to do. Anyway, I want to improve on my baking, so does anybody have any common mistakes which I should remember? Also, I have some silicon cake tins and I wondered if there was anything in particular I needed to know about them which is different to regular cake tins.

Thanks and God bless!

suzybeezy · Apr 3, 2012

Roseheart said:
Hi, all,

So I'm fairly new to baking and the other day I made a cake which was pretty disastrous. It tasted all right, but it went quite flat and the sugar I dusted the cake tin with had caramelized, which it wasn't meant to do. I looked it up and realised that it was probably flat because I opened the oven door quite a lot to check on it, which I read you weren't meant to do. Anyway, I want to improve on my baking, so does anybody have any common mistakes which I should remember? Also, I have some silicon cake tins and I wondered if there was anything in particular I needed to know about them which is different to regular cake tins.

Thanks and God bless!

If you add too much flour, your baked goods will be hard and dry. If you don't add enough flour, the recipe will fall and fail. Take some time to learn about measuring rules and your results will dramatically improve. Also you may want to try using Cake flour for cakes - not all recipes call for it, but it can often help improve the outcome. Additionally, do not use liquid measuring cups for dry ingredients, as the results will not be accurate. For regularly cooking its not usually an issue, but when baking you need to use the correct tools or it throws the recipe off - flours are especially vulnerable to this difference.

I've found out the hard way that room-temperature butter does not mean you can get away with tossing it in the microwave. In cookies, this causes the pancake effect, as the butter melts and spreads before the cookie is set. If a recipe calls for cold ingredients, make sure you refrigerate everything or risk that delicious flakiness that makes pastry so amazing. Also, this may seem like a no-brainer, but check the expiration date on your ingredients. I once went a few months with expired baking soda and wondered why nothing rose.

Roseheart · Apr 4, 2012

suzybeezy said:
If you add too much flour, your baked goods will be hard and dry. If you don't add enough flour, the recipe will fall and fail. Take some time to learn about measuring rules and your results will dramatically improve. Also you may want to try using Cake flour for cakes - not all recipes call for it, but it can often help improve the outcome. Additionally, do not use liquid measuring cups for dry ingredients, as the results will not be accurate. For regularly cooking its not usually an issue, but when baking you need to use the correct tools or it throws the recipe off - flours are especially vulnerable to this difference.

I've found out the hard way that room-temperature butter does not mean you can get away with tossing it in the microwave. In cookies, this causes the pancake effect, as the butter melts and spreads before the cookie is set. If a recipe calls for cold ingredients, make sure you refrigerate everything or risk that delicious flakiness that makes pastry so amazing. Also, this may seem like a no-brainer, but check the expiration date on your ingredients. I once went a few months with expired baking soda and wondered why nothing rose.

Thank you for your advice. Over here we measure flour by weight anyway, so it's probably not as difficult to fall into that trap! I may look into cake flour; I haven't heard of it before.

I'll try to plan ahead more, too, which is something I can be bad at. If a recipe says eggs at room temperature I'll suddenly realise I probably have to wait another three hours or so for them to get there when I was already ready to start cooking!

Thank you again!

suzybeezy · Apr 4, 2012

Yeah measuring by weight has to be the way to go - I should probably look into doing it that way. I am not a cook - actually hate it, but I so enjoy baking. I'm playing around with a few recipes that I'm gonna try for Easter, one is a lemon cake that has my mouth watering thinking about it.

Happy baking!

Roseheart · Apr 10, 2012

suzybeezy said:
Yeah measuring by weight has to be the way to go - I should probably look into doing it that way. I am not a cook - actually hate it, but I so enjoy baking. I'm playing around with a few recipes that I'm gonna try for Easter, one is a lemon cake that has my mouth watering thinking about it.

Happy baking!

And you! How was your cake?

suzybeezy · Apr 10, 2012

Actually not as good as I'd hoped. But made a new homemade roll recipe that was fantastic! So that was a win.

How was your Easter - make any new tasty dishes?

Roseheart · Apr 11, 2012

That's a shame, but at least your roll recipe worked - that's probably better, since it was homemade.

I didn't make anything over Easter but today I made a chocolate-chip cake which will be eaten tonight, although I'll admit I used a cake mix for it. It came out fine.

Sunnys · Apr 11, 2012

I love to bake... only I do not get the opportunity as much as I would like, seems as though too many are watching their intake or weight.

I have found that if you follow the directions very carefully when you are new to baking, you will have less problems... so take your time. The powdered sugar started to carmelize as you added it while the cake was still warm... slow down a bit... wait until it is cool.

The one thing I will always remember, is never bake under stress, and always bake with love, and it will always turn out wonderful.

suzybeezy · Apr 11, 2012

Let me share my buttercream icing recipe - its super easy and everyone will rave our fabulous it taste. You'll be a big hit with your next cake. Sometimes I use the butter recipe box cake mix then top with the buttercream icing for extra buttery goodness.

1 cup butter
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract
up to 8 cups confectioners' sugar (I've found 6 is good usually)

Cream the butter and shortening together until smooth. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.

Roseheart · Apr 12, 2012

Sunnys said:
I love to bake... only I do not get the opportunity as much as I would like, seems as though too many are watching their intake or weight.

I have found that if you follow the directions very carefully when you are new to baking, you will have less problems... so take your time. The powdered sugar started to carmelize as you added it while the cake was still warm... slow down a bit... wait until it is cool.

The one thing I will always remember, is never bake under stress, and always bake with love, and it will always turn out wonderful.

Thanks - I'll definitely try to remember that, because sometimes it's easy for me to stress out if something's going wrong with my baking. The sugar, by the way, dusted the cake tin so it went in the oven with the cake. To be honest, I'm not sure how the person who gave me the recipe gets it so that it doesn't caramellise, but I may ask about that.

suzybeezy said:
Let me share my buttercream icing recipe - its super easy and everyone will rave our fabulous it taste. You'll be a big hit with your next cake. Sometimes I use the butter recipe box cake mix then top with the buttercream icing for extra buttery goodness.

1 cup butter

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract

up to 8 cups confectioners' sugar (I've found 6 is good usually)

Cream the butter and shortening together until smooth. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.

That's going in my recipe journal - I've never used butter for icing before so I'll want to try this out. Thanks for sharing!

Diane_Windsor · May 8, 2012

I'm fairly inexperienced when it comes to baking as well. Breads, kneading, and when to add flour and how much flour to add* are my stumbling blocks. Recently I learned that when the recipes say to oil and flour the baking dish it means to completely coat the baking vessel with oil and flour Oh well, hubby got the cake out of the pan and has enjoyed the cake so that's all that matters right?

*Yes I do follow recipes, but sometimes the dough to still sticks to my hands (and everything else).

Roseheart · May 9, 2012

Haha, I don't usually make bread - I usually stick to cakes and biscuits. Fortunately I haven't had too many disasters lately!

MissRowy · Nov 18, 2012

My partner and I made a cake and we added too much milk to the icing and then added too much icing sugar....it was so disgustingly sweet we disposed of it!
Also I am hopeless at making scones....I made some ages ago that turned out like little hockey pucks...

keith99 · Nov 29, 2012

For quite a few things you can overmix. If a recipe says mix for 5 minutes don't mix longer. Handed down recipes may leave the out.

If a glaze is to be put on something before baking unless it says otherwise do it right before baking.

Generally speaking don't try to force fast rising.

Oh and if it says ot let somethgin cool between steps give it the full cooling time.

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