Anyone else bake cakes?

[Accy cyclist]

A neighbour gave me a home baked 'space cake' the other month. It didn't do much for me,apart from make me want to eat lots of 'normal' biscuits.

 

[PeteXXX]

I baked 4 cakes in my bread maker, as I don’t have a cooker presently. New offices at work so plonked them in our kitchen bit. I baked a ginger cake, lemon cake, toffee fudge cake and a chocolate cake. All sticky loaf recipes. All slices of cake gone by elevensies.

I used to have a breadmaker. It was useless. Maybe I should invest in a new one.. Just for cakes.

Very good, Pete3X, and the others. Hope they taste as good as they look.

I only occasionally bake a cake, and nearly always a Christmas/Dundee kind of cake.

Cheesecakes are made more often as no baking is required.

Thanks. Yep. Tasted good!
I made a really rich Cheesecake last week. It was nice, but very sloppy.. Hey ho.

Yes i do but nothing as extravagant as @PeteXXX 's

I also like doing fruit crumbles

I picked lots of blackberries last week and made a couple of crumbles.
Mmmm.. Love crumbles..

I haven't the patience for all the measuring ingredients.
Scones are my limit.

Good ones.

MrsPete is the scone queen here..

 

[PeteXXX]

My Granddaughter's birthday cake, for today's party 🎉
Two layer sponge cake foe the wall, and light fruit cake for the settee.

Fot those that don't know it, it's a Stranger Things theme..

 

[figbat]

My wife has done some good themed cakes for our kids’ birthdays. I’m more of a bread and pastry guy. However I did once make a themed cake our village’s celebration of the Queen’s birthday a few years back.

It’s a battenburg, which I dubbed Britainburg.

 

[oldwheels]

I do bake but have a limited range and nothing fancy. Trouble is since I live on my own I end up eating most of them which is not good for weight control.

 

[Reynard]

I don't bake nearly as many cakes as I used to - I'm more of a bread gal these days - but I did do a wedding cake for two very dear friends a while back. They got married at short notice to help in their court case over a very weird custody battle with an ex, and there was no time to order a cake. So there was me, flitting around Tesco at half eleven at night, buying cake ingredients. Made a two-tier chocolate ganache cake - went down well, there were only a few crumbs left after the reception.

 

[PeteXXX]

I don't bake nearly as many cakes as I used to - I'm more of a bread gal these days - but I did do a wedding cake for two very dear friends a while back. They got married at short notice to help in their court case over a very weird custody battle with an ex, and there was no time to order a cake. So there was me, flitting around Tesco at half eleven at night, buying cake ingredients. Made a two-tier chocolate ganache cake - went down well, there were only a few crumbs left after the reception.

View attachment 502141

That must have been fun!

 

[Reynard]

That must have been fun!

Not entirely sure that fun would describe the experience... But it was a very satisfying one, especially when I dropped the cake off at their place the day after, on the morning of the wedding.

I'll add that it was a very pet-friendly wedding, so Lexi came along with me as requested. I hogged the prawn sarnies at the reception - Lexi had the prawns and I had the bread.

 

[Pale Rider]

I do bake but have a limited range and nothing fancy. Trouble is since I live on my own I end up eating most of them which is not good for weight control.

I have baked what I would describe as a classic fruit cake a couple of times when I have someone to give it away to.

Turned out well, moist, fruit well distributed, domed top with a Y shaped crack in the crown, which I was told is a good sign.

I used a recipe by Marguerite Patten, and was very careful to weigh the ingredients and follow all the instructions.

A more talented cook than me could knock up a fruit cake by eye.

I see Patten made it to 99 before dying in 2015.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11665211/Marguerite-Patten-food-writer-obituary.html

 

[PeteXXX]

A good age!
Mrs Beeton was only 28 when she died, yet her book still lives on.

 

[Reynard]

I have baked what I would describe as a classic fruit cake a couple of times when I have someone to give it away to.

Turned out well, moist, fruit well distributed, domed top with a Y shaped crack in the crown, which I was told is a good sign.

I used a recipe by Marguerite Patten, and was very careful to weigh the ingredients and follow all the instructions.

A more talented cook than me could knock up a fruit cake by eye.

I see Patten made it to 99 before dying in 2015.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11665211/Marguerite-Patten-food-writer-obituary.html

Marguerite Patten's recipes and methods are pretty well much foolproof. Some of them are my go-to for assorted bits.

Cake baking is one of the few things in cookery that you *can't* do by eye, as you are dependent on a fairly exacting chemical reaction to make the cake rise. Which means following recipes exactly. If you don't, you'll end up with something other than intended.

The closest I do to baking cakes by eye is a basic sponge, where you weigh your egg(s) in the shell, then weigh out the same amount of self raising flour, sugar and butter or marg.

 

[Pale Rider]

Marguerite Patten's recipes and methods are pretty well much foolproof. Some of them are my go-to for assorted bits.

Cake baking is one of the few things in cookery that you *can't* do by eye, as you are dependent on a fairly exacting chemical reaction to make the cake rise. Which means following recipes exactly. If you don't, you'll end up with something other than intended.

The closest I do to baking cakes by eye is a basic sponge, where you weigh your egg(s) in the shell, then weigh out the same amount of self raising flour, sugar and butter or marg.

As a keen cook you grasp the need for proportionality which would be lost on the less skilled.

I don't recall my grandmother using scales very much.

Experience would tell you an inch of butter off the pat is about 2ozs.

You might also know the weight, or at least the number of scoops required, using your favourite measuring spoon for flour and sugar.

I think all modern cooks are fortunate in having ovens which can hit a temperature reliably.

Going back to granny, I can recall being ticked off for leaving the back door open when she was trying to get the solid fuel Rayburn up to temperature.

 

[Reynard]

As a keen cook you grasp the need for proportionality which would be lost on the less skilled.

I don't recall my grandmother using scales very much.

Experience would tell you an inch of butter off the pat is about 2ozs.

You might also know the weight, or at least the number of scoops required, using your favourite measuring spoon for flour and sugar.

I think all modern cooks are fortunate in having ovens which can hit a temperature reliably.

Going back to granny, I can recall being ticked off for leaving the back door open when she was trying to get the solid fuel Rayburn up to temperature.

Pretty well much the only times I use scales is when baking, cooking a souffle or making preserves. Everything else is pretty well much done by eye - and by taste. It's one of these things that you just learn by doing. I'm luckier than most, as my mum trained in a professional kitchen, and she then taught me how to cook.

Some of my cat show friends keep saying I ought to write a cookbook, but where would I start? I mean, how exactly do I quantify a "dollop"

Definitely, having a good hob and oven makes the world of difference, though living out in the boonies means the electric isn't always what it should be. You can just tell when everyone else is cooking their tea!

 

[PeteXXX]

As a keen cook you grasp the need for proportionality which would be lost on the less skilled.

I don't recall my grandmother using scales very much.

Experience would tell you an inch of butter off the pat is about 2ozs.

You might also know the weight, or at least the number of scoops required, using your favourite measuring spoon for flour and sugar.

I think all modern cooks are fortunate in having ovens which can hit a temperature reliably.

Going back to granny, I can recall being ticked off for leaving the back door open when she was trying to get the solid fuel Rayburn up to temperature.

I still tell people to open and close the doors gently or my sponge will go flat! Air pressure, so my mum said her mum told her!

 

[PeteXXX]

The cake I baked for MrsPete's recent birthday (I won't say how old she is 😉)

The problem was that she's usually in when I am, so I had to bake a 9" and a 7" sponge after I came home from work at midnightish. This involved weighing the ingredients, quietly, taking the bowl and mixer into the bike shed so the noise didn't wake her up. Hiding the cake once it was done. Next night, I assembled it, offset so those that don't like jam in their sponge could have the front ledge. I filled and iced it (shop bought as I couldn't use fresh butter icing as I had to box it up and leave it in with my bikes for safe keeping!)
On her birthday, I decorated it while she was in the shower and popped it round to next door for them to store until the evening surprise (socially distanced) doorstep party with all the neighbours and friends in attendance around the Close

🎉