I’ll describe the step by step process for you, so you get an idea of both, the equipment required and the stages of cake-making. We’ll take the case of a plain vanilla cake. (You can use any recipe you like. The process remains pretty much the same)
1.Preheat your oven. Ovens can be built-in or counter-top, conventional (regular) or convection (they have a fan which circulates hot air in the oven). Both are fine, and get the job done.
If using convection oven, reduce the temperature by 25 F (20 C) than what you would use for a regular oven, as it bakes food faster.
2. Prepare your baking pan. Baking pans come in various material, like aluminium, stainless steel, non-stick, cast iron, silicone, glass and polished ceramic.
My favorite brands (which I personally use - completely my choice, I am not paid to use or write about them) are USA pan (have a patented Americoat lining), Nordic ware and Kitchenaid (heavy duty aluminium), Lodge (cast iron and polished ceramic), Silikomart (silicone), and Pyrex (glass).
Use any pan which you prefer, there are numerous amazing brands available. See what works for you. Make sure the pans are good quality and don’t warp in the oven. Start out with a few basic pans, and then expand to more pans as you go.
To prepare pan for baking, line it with parchment paper or grease and flour the pan:
- grease with butter or oil
- put a tablespoon or so of flour
- tap around to coat the entire pan with flour
- and then invert and tap to get rid of excess flour.
3. Measure your ingredients. You can use a weighing scale or measuring cups. I much prefer a weighing scale, because it gives almost the same results every single time.
4. Cream butter and sugar together.
For this, you’ll need a stand mixer, or electric hand mixer, or a simple whisk and lots of muscle strength :)
Make sure your butter, and in fact, all ingredients are at room temperature. Whisk the butter and sugar till the mixture is light and fluffy. This is called ‘Creaming’.
4. Add the eggs to the creamed butter, one at a time. Mix till they are completely incorporated. Most recipes call for large eggs (weighing 53 to 58 gm with shell).
Add the vanilla extract. Try to use pure vanilla. It is a little expensive, but has MUCH better flavor.
5. In another bowl, sift together all purpose flour, leaveners (baking powder/ baking soda, as may be required by the recipe), and salt.
Sifting makes a lighter cake, and helps to distribute the leaveners evenly throughout the flour, but it is not necessary.
6. Using a spatula, fold in this dry ingredients mixture in the wet ingredients, alternating with the milk. Start and end with the flour. Do not overmix the batter at this point.
7. A beautiful vanilla cake batter is ready. Pour it into your prepared pan, and even it out.
Bake for the required time. Do not open the oven door during the first half of the baking time.
Check on the cake a few minutes earlier than the time mentioned in the recipe, as every oven is different.
8. Cool and decorate.
Transfer the cake on a wire rack, and allow to cool completely.
Decorate using buttercream, whipped cream, or store bought frosting. If you make multiple layers, you can also make a layered cake.
Decorate with sprinkles or fruit.
Later, when you start baking regularly, you can also buy some more things which you may eventually need:
- an oven thermometer
- a candy thermometer (regular or infrared) - especially useful for making candy, marshmallows, italian meringues, etc.
- Different kinds of pans, may be even speciality pans
- Special ingredients like vanilla beans, gel food colours, couverture chocolates, etc.
- Fun stuff like cute cupcake liners, edible glitter dust, chocolate texture sheets, etc.
- a turntable, serrated bread knife, offset spatula and bench scraper for cake decorating.
And so much more. Once you get into baking, the world is your oyster. There is so much you can do. But this is just the basic of starting out by making a simple vanilla cake. From here on, have fun as you find your way.
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