by Alexandra Heep

Created on: January 08, 2008   Last Updated: April 29, 2011

The Secrets to Baking Perfect Cakes

While anyone can follow written instructions and make a cake from scratch, there are a lot of people that like to improvise and put their own personal touches to a recipe. So, how do you personalize a cake recipe, without ruining the end product?

To begin, read the recipe all the way through. Make sure you have all the ingredients on hand. There is nothing more annoying than getting half-way through the preparation, just to find out you are out of something, and the stores that sell that ingredient happen to be closed.

In addition, a recipe might call for adding melted and cooled butter, or some kind of shredded ingredient, somewhere near the end of the instructions. Even though these items can be listed near the end, it would take time to prepare these ingredients. In that case you have to make a mental note to start preparing them at the beginning, so you won't have to set everything aside.

After making sure you have all the required ingredients, make sure you have the proper pan size and shape. You can be somewhat flexible, but you will need to adjust the baking time. If you go for a somewhat smaller pan, increase the baking time. If you use a larger pan, decrease the baking time. Generally, don't fluctuate by more than two inches total when it comes to the pan size.

While reading cake recipes, you will probably notice that there is a certain order to mixing the ingredients. Do not change the assembly order. Most cake recipes will have the following general mixing order:

* Cream butter, margarine or shortening
* Add sweetener
* Add eggs
* Add partial flour
* Add partial liquid and flavoring
* Add more flour
* Add remaining liquid
* Add remaining flour
* Add ingredients that provides texture (nuts, fruits, coconut, etc)

In addition, your leavening agent (like baking powder) should be mixed in with the flour in a separate bowl, rather than being added by itself. The flavoring usually gets mixed separately with the sugar in a separate bowl as well.

There are some ingredients you should not substitute for. When the recipe calls for butter, use butter. If it calls for margarine, use margarine. Also, the type of flour should be the same as well. If a recipe calls for all-purpose flour, then that is what should be used.

However, you can get creative with the flavorings. A lot of recipes call for vanilla flavoring, but you can substitute this for just about any flavor that you like. You can also add other flavorings, such as lemon or orange zest.

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