20 Tips on How to Bake a Perfect Cake

Okay well obviously this isn't a foolproof guide to baking the perfect cake. Lets be real, some of us just dont know how to bake....however, some of these tips may provide explanations for why your cake looks and tastes like cardboard. You're welcome.

General Tips 

1- Make sure your oven is set in the correct temperature: this is often the solution for many common baking problems like a sunken or collapsed cake.

2- Cake bakes differently in glass versus metal, if using glass you'll want to lower your oven temperature by 25 degrees.

3- Preheat your oven even before you start prepping, its best if the oven is preheated 20-30 minutes before baking.

4- Be sure to use the correct pan size as stated in the recipe.

5- Eggs, butter, milk, and liquids in general should be room temperature; cold ingredients could cause the batter to curdle.

6- To check freshness of eggs, put in a bowl of water–if they sink, they’re fresh. If they float and stand on one end, they’re not.

7- Measure flour and dry ingredients carefully, make sure to use a knife or other flat surface to level off dry ingredients in a measuring cup or spoon.

8-To bring cold eggs to room temperature quickly, you can put the whole eggs into a bowl of lukewarm water (not hot) for 30 minutes.

9-To bring butter to room temperature quickly, you can cut into small cubes on a plate for about 15 minutes.

10- Be careful with your sugar- too much can cause a dark crust or too little can cause a light crust or rough texture. 

11- Don't skip the sifting!

12- For best results, use pure vanilla extract (not from grocery stores)–what a difference! Don’t even be afraid to double the vanilla quantity.

13- When mixing together the butter and sugar, make sure to mix at the least for five minutes. Keep in mind that the longer you mix, the lighter the cake will turn out.

14-Watch your flour, too much can cause a cracked top. 

15- Semisweet & Bittersweet Chocolate are interchangeable.

16- Use a pastry brush to butter the pans.

17- When baking foam cakes like angel food cake, add the flour slowly NOT ALL AT ONCE. Trust me this is what keeps the cake light.

18- The batter should fill the cake generally around halfway, not more than 2/3 unless instructed.

19- Bake the cake in the middle of the oven.

20- Rotate the pans in the middle of baking. 

Further Problems 

-dry cakes as mentioned above, this could be because the oven is too hot; you may need to either lower the temperature or bake your cake for less time. This can also be caused by too much flour or baking powder. 

-Sunken Cake: This is caused by too much liquid, or an oven that's not hot enough. 

-Difficulty Removing Cake from Pan: Make sure to properly grease and flour (yes flour) the pan before you add the batter. You may also want to line the bottom of your pan with parchment paper, especially when baking layer cakes. Be sure to remove the cake from the pan at the right time and allow the cake to cool beforehand for ten minutes. Invert it onto a plate and allow to cool completelyyyy.



Honestly I didnt even know about all these things until I researched. Now i know why my cakes dont turn out that well. I might start putting more cake recipes up soon :P

White Chocolate Butterscotch Cookies

• So don't say I didn't warn you...these cookies are Sweet. I originally made these for a potluck about a week ago. I wanted something sweet but not too fancy and easy enough to make an hour before i have to go (which never EVER turns out well). While i finally arrived like a half hour late, these cookies were worth it. Its a pretty easy recipe and great for when you want a twist to the class chocolate chips..chocolate does get tired after a while (hahahahahahahhaa im jk ily). Either ways its super fun to try out new variations and while iv always despised butterscotch with a burning passion i cant seem to stop eating these cookies..good thing i have two bags of cookie dough left Also I'm getting too tired to capitalize my "i"s  so forgive me. 

• Disclaimer: it has a pretty unique flavor and so idk if everyone will like these cookies as much as me but its worth a try :)

• makes two dozen
• 
  
• Ingredients 

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 bag white chocolate chips
• 1/2 bag butterscotch chips

Procedure

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
2. 
3.  
4. Beat in one egg at a time. Mix in oil, vanilla and almond extract.
5. 
6. 
   
7. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly mix into wet ingredients.
8. 
9. 
10. 
    
11. Once mixed, fold in baking chips.
12. 
13. 
    
14. Bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
15. 
    
16.  I actually ended up baking for a bit longer but do remember and this is important, flatten out the cookies a bit before you put it in 
17. because my first batch turned out pretty poofy 

Btw ik i didnt post final pics but i promise i will in less than a week. So if any tried/ wants to try the recipe feel free to comment below and check back soon for some fun Easter- inspired creations:P

Butter-cream Frosting Recipe

Frosting Recipe 

This was originally the recipe I was going to use for my latest sugar cookies post, but unfortunately, I ran out of butter for like the first time everrrrr. But its okay...hes buying some more tonight:). So ya I haven't tried it out yet but this recipe got good reviews so I wouldn't hesitate to try.

Ingredients 

- 1 stick unsalted, softened butter

- 1/4 tsp salt

- up to 4 tbs of milk- start with two and go from there

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- powdered sugar- add until the consistency is correct for frosting 

Procedure

1. Mix softened butter, salt, two tbs milk, and vanilla. 

2. Start with a half cup of powdered sugar and stir in. In 1/4 cup increments, add more powdered sugar and stir. This can be as thin or thick as you like. 

3. Add the food coloring for frosting (optional). 

4. Spread the frosting on the cookies however you like.

So as I mentioned, I haven't actually gotten to try this recipe and if any of you do, feel free to comment below and suggestions, tips, or general reviews. Thanks for reading!

Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe

This is somewhat overdue as sugar cookies are hallmarks of Christmas and the whole winter season in general. I have tried a million different sugar cookie recipe, one time I even spent around four hours on a single recipe when I was around 10 years old. The whole rolling and cutting and frosting mess included, and my mom accidentally over-baked them :O. But oh well, accidents happen, just don't over-bake these  cookies! Only problem is they can be hard to tell because, well, they're supposed to turn out white. So make sure to have your oven mitts on around two minutes before the recipe calls to take them out, and make sure to check on them once in a while.Besides that, these cookies are wonderful, as long as they don't make you diabetic first :P.  The recipe is for drop sugar cookies. If you are planning to make them into shapes, you have to chill the dough for around an hour but I would suggest a different recipe.  So I'm done talking now, have fun baking!

Cookie Recipe 

makes four dozen, preheat 375 degrees

Ingredients        

 - 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup butter, SOFTENED THAT'S IMPORTANT
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ( I added 2 for more flavor, tastes great)

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Then add the egg and vanilla. Mix until its all incorporated.

4. Blend in the dry ingredients. Mix well. 

5. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until slightly golden, but I would recommend taking them out before, if you want super soft cookies. 

7. Let stand on the cookie sheet for two minutes before eating.

Enjoy:) They taste awesome when still warm!

Snowball Cookies

Happy Late Christmas/ New Years! I recently made snowball cookies while visiting San Jose, California over winter break with my cousins. They actually have like a million names like Mexican Wedding cookies and Russian teacakes; whatever you want to call them, this is a tasty, quick, holiday recipe for those of us with a sweet tooth.

Ingredients 

- 1 cup of softened butter

- 1/2 cup powdered sugar

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 1/8 tsp sea salt

- 2 cups chopped walnuts

- 1 cup powdered sugar (to roll cookies in after baking)

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Beat butter and the half cup of powdered sugar. Add vanilla. 

3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and nuts. 

4. Stir the dough in the second bowl to the sugar mixture.

5. Roll the dough into small balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, or until slightly browned.

6. While hot, roll them in the remaining cup of powdered sugar. Cool. Sprinkle a bit more powdered sugar on top to give it a "snowy" look.

You're done! Enjoy

Procedure

Thanksgiving Pictures

Hey guyss! So I know its kinda, just a little, VERY late, but I still want to post my thanksgiving pictures. So my thanksgiving was pretty interesting (to be honest Black Friday was probably more fun) and I ate, like a lot. So basically we stayed up super late baking the night before and some more the next morning and this is how it all turned out:

Soooo this is the pumpkin pies I made and btw ik it says its for 30 min but it came to about an hour for baking. Oh and I heard it tasted really good, not that I got to eat any but ya

Ooh and these are the pumpkin spice cookies as you can see, well my mom really liked them so we made them again, doubling the batch and adding more spices.

These are actually store bought mixes but they taste pretty good. And ya my mom went a little crazy with the icing lol

Oh and sorry I took forever to post this, it took a while to track down the pumpkin pie photo.

Also, I hope all of you had a great thanksgiving!:)

Pumpkin Pie

So its 11:30 and night right now and in a half hour it'll be thanksgiving!! So my mom, sister, and I were full on baking the last few hours (I'll post pics in the morning). And I found this great pumpkin pie recipe and I wanted to show you guys. So here it is.

Ingredients

- 1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese, softened

- 2 cups canned pumpkin, mashed

- 1 cup sugar

- 1/4th teaspoon salt

- 1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten

- 1 cup half-and-half

- 1/4th cup melted butter (so half a stick)

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp ground ginger, optional

- 1 piece pre-made pie dough

- whipped cream for topping

Procedure

1- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2- Place one piece of the Pre-made pie dough and press down along the bottoms and all side. Pinch and crimp the edges. Put the pie shell into the freezer for an hour to firm up (or a half according to some sources); it just needs to be well- done otherwise it wont hold up. Fit a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper to cover the shell completely. Fill the shell with pie weights, you can also use rice or beans. Bake for ten minutes. Remove the foil and pie weights, and bake for another ten or until the crust is dried and beginning to turn colors. 

Okay so this seems like a ton of work and it kinda is, so that's why a lot of people generally get pre-made crust at the store. Yes, they do work, but I was committed (and stupid) enough to be stubborn enough to want to make my own. I used Mrs. Kirk's recipe, from Missy's Meanderings :D.  And the good thing is, there are two extra pie shells from that recipe, so my moms already begging for cheesecake:P. 

2- For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer.

Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. 

Add the sugar, salt, and beat some moreeeee. 

And add the eggs, half and half, and melted butter. Beat until combined. 

So I'm a genius right, and I put the butter in for wayyy too long in the microwave and there was loud bubbling noises and etc..:/ Okay now add the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger if you're using it. Beat until combined.

okayokay weird filters ik sorry

3- Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes. The center should be set. Then place the pie onto a wire rack to cool to room temp. Cut into slices and add whipped cream.

4- Enjoy:)

Okay I'll post final product pics tomorrow. And along with all the other things we baked. Oh and have a GREAT thanksgiving...I'll be enjoying my tofurkey....ugh the downsides of being vegetarian...