Steps to Make a Cake from Scratch at Home With Oven
“Let’s bake the world a better place” By now you probably have understood what we are talking about. Yes, we are talking about cakes. These edible bundles of happiness are a total glee to taste buds. Hence with this article, we will be telling you to how to make a cake from scratch. So if you’re a novice looking for a guided excerpt over “how to bake a simple cake for beginners”, look no further.
Following are the guided steps to make a cake from scratch:
1. Preheat the oven
After collecting all the ingredients needed to make a cake from scratch, it’s time to pre-heat the oven. Turn on the oven and make sure it’s pre-heated. You can do this while collecting the ingredients or after that. Just remember, you need good 20-25 minutes.
2. Selecting the correct pans
While most of the times, it’s the usual Bundt pan which is ideal for cake. You can also use the glass bakeware which is another suitable option for cakes. The reason being the temperature tends to be more stable with glassware. Yes, it will surely add some more time as it needs a little extra cooking time, but ends results make it all worthy. Metal pans also form the good base for the evenly baked cakes. But if you are going with metal pans, you have to choose the shiny metal pan and not dark pans. Dark colored pans are good conductors of heat and hence they get heated too quickly. This, in turn, results to the unevenly baked cake.
3. Preparing the pans
Cakes tend to get stick to pans and hence pans need to be greased. You need about a tablespoon of softened butter on the tissue and need to coat that on sides and bottom of pans. As a simple alternative, you can use cooking spray too. Later sprinkle some flour on the bottom of the pan and shake it well so that it is evenly scattered over bottom and by sides. If you feel you have got extra flour, turn your pan upside down over the sink.
4. Preparing the Batter
5. The dry ingredient mixture
When it comes to dry ingredients needed to make a cake from scratch, you just have to stir flour baking powder and salt well in a bowl. They just needed to be mixed well. You can stir with the aid of whisk.
6. Creaming
Later comes the creaming part. The cake batter needs to be aerated and hence air is forced in while mixing the softened butter and sugar. Also, it is quite effective and beneficial when the cake is left to bake. While softening the butter, the blades of the mixture forced air in it which makes it light. At the same times, the sweetening sugar granules are cut down to mix well with batter. The blades of the mixture along with incorporating air, breaking sugar granules help in making the even consistency of the batter. It also ensures that your batter is evenly mixed.
Importance of creaming
Creaming is one of the essential steps at the very beginning that that needs to be done at medium or a speed that varies between medium and high. It hardly talks 3-5 minutes. Here is to make a cake from scratch the question arises is how to realize that creaming is all done. The answer is the mixture will be light, quite fluffy and a little pale in color. Don’t just rush in doing this. Take your time because as we move further with next Steps to Bake a Cake. In the following steps, more ingredients will form the part and you just can’t go all the way back if anything goes wrong.
As difficult as it sounds, creaming in juxtaposition is quite easy. Even it’s not that scary as people tend to make it. If you’re using a stand mixer, you don’t have to worry at all. It is enough to do all the work for you. In case you are using a hand mixer, there is a little trick. As soon as you see the blended sugar and butter forming the ribbons in the batter, you are all done with creaming. And just to assure you, it is pretty well. You can sing your favorite song while doing it and this looks as smooth as the “cakewalk”. Just ensure that you use softened butter at the very beginning.
7. Adding eggs
Break one egg into another cup. It is suggested because this will allow you to remove any shell fragment if it is dropped. Add one egg at a time and stir the butter-sugar-egg mixture well. Repeat it with the remaining eggs as well.
8. Adding the dry mixture and liquid
Gradually you have to add the mixture of dry ingredients and some of the milk to the egg-butter-sugar mixture. You have to beat the mixture at low speed. With each addition, beat it until it is all blended well. You can start and end with adding the mixture of dry ingredient.
9. Pour batter into pans for baking
Pour the batter into the pans. Make surely it is evenly settled. You can use an offset metal spatula for this. You can use this kitchen tool for spreading the batter evenly. Be sure to spread it to the edge of the pan.
10. Time to bake the cake
Place these pans filled with batter in the oven right away. Hence it is suggested to pre-heat the oven. If the batter sits a little longer ideally, there are good chances, it will get rotten or the results aren’t that good as expected. How to know it’s baked or not. The simple trick is to insert a toothpick in the center of the cake if it comes out clean. You are all ready.
11. Cooling and frosting
Take the cake out of the oven and let it sit to cool for a few minutes. Remove them from the pans and place it on cake board. Cooling is necessary as it firms the cake, preventing it from breaking down. Also, the frosting tends to melt at the heated cake. So it is essential to cool it down before frosting. With frosting, you can decorate it the way you want. You can add little candies or sprinklers, anything.
TADAAAAAA… the treat is all ready to hog over.
