I have search for many tips, secrets recipes, magic ingredients to create that most amazing cake. What I have found out is that there is no "magic", otherwise we would all know what it is and there would be 1000's of cook books that would simply put it out there.. as baking has been around a long time. What I HAVE learned from all this research is that it really just comes down to mixing and mixing well. So here are my tips to becoming a better baker:
1. Potato Flour is a "secret" ingredient, if you think its fun to say you have one. Replace 1/4 c regular flour for 1/4 cup potato flour in every recipe. This replaces the need for "baking flour" and helps compensate for the tendency to over work the flour when mixing. Using regular flour instead of baking flour creates a stronger, tastier "crumb" because the regular flour will bond better with your other ingredients (ie..flavor). The potato flour helps prevent some of the over mixing problem. It probably does some pretty cool other stuff too but that is beyond my knowledge. I just love using it. That is what I know.
2. Cream sugar and butter slowly and completely. Get as much air into it as you can. If you beat it too fast you will actually push OUT the air. Beat slow to INCORPORATE air into the batter.
3. Mix eggs really well. Eggs WANT to help you bind. This is what they do and they are eager to help. Get that stickiness worked through out everything evenly. The result is happy eggs. Happy eggs = happy cake eaters
4. Liquids. You can add a lot of flavor to a cake by using liquids that have flavor in them. Play with the flavors. Experiment with combos such as booze (rum, amaretto, Baily's, Kahlua), creams, yogurt, sour cream, buttermilk, extracts, purees, etc
5. "Dry" ingredients. Sift flours, baking soda, salt, baking powder (etc, as specified in the recipe) together. YES...you do need to SIFT. When incorporating into the batter, be careful not to OVER mix... but also don't UNDER mix. This is where balance and practice comes in and is the true "art" of baking an amazing cake. If you over mix you will make the molecules in the flour hard which will cause your cake to be dense and dry (yuck!). If you under mix, the cake will drop/collapse in the middle or may not bake evenly (gooey cake..also yuck). You are more likely to OVER mix than to under mix, error on the side of under mixing until you master this art. Using baking flour helps compensate for the tendency to over mix (which is why we have "baking flour") but if you master the art of mixing real flour properly, you will have a much tastier and robust cake.
So there you have it. Happy Baking and Have FUN. Please add any tips that you found helpful in your baking.
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