How Could I Miss My Measurement Cup!

In my earlier post, I have mentioned about my baking tools and utensils... but, I forgot to mention about the Measurement Cup, which is a most essential baking requirement for any of your baking projects. It's my blogger friend - Defender of the faith, who noticed this and reminded me. Thank you so much, my friend....

              

Measurement Cup: For baking a cake, you need to be perfect in measuring the ingredients. For that reason, a measuring instrument is absolutely necessary - be it a cup or a weighing machine. This measurement cup is one of my earliest baking stocks and till now, I am using only this one. I've not invested in any type of weighing machine, as yet; but if you already have it, then nothing like that. Beginners can go ahead with this measuring cup. Most of the recipes use the cup measurement option, so with a cup you can avoid the math of volume conversion (from cup to gm or mg). The digital weighing machine is a good one for professional bakers, as you can measure the exact amount by that. 

Today, while I am writing this blog, I just received my latest baking procurement, for which I am super-excited. But, I am not going to divulge it now. I shall definitely make a post on these new items in near future.

My Cake Baking Tools and Utensils

Many of you might be waiting for the first cake recipe - but please hold on... I want to first give a little introduction on the tools and utensils, which I use in a regular basis. This post is mainly for the beginners and new-comers in the world of baking. You can start to invest in these most basic items, to start your baking journey with me. I would also like to mention that I am too trying to build up my stock, so whatever I am showing in this post is not all-inclusive. The more you build up your stock, the more variety of cakes, you can work on. Currently, I am in search of a perfect set of cake icing tool and when I get it, I'll surely keep you all updated. :)

Cake Baking Tins: This is the most basic thing, you will need. Yes, you can make microwave cakes in coffee mug, but that's not a proper cake. These tins are available in most of the common grocery stores like Big Bazar, Star Bazar, Spar, Spencers etc. You will get these in a variety of shape. To start with, you can buy one 7" or 9" circular shaped tins. A 9" cake is perfect for 8-10 people. However, if you want to start experimenting with shapes then there are various shapes like square, star, flower etc.

Wooden Spatula: A wooden spatula is perfect for mixing the dry mixture and later the batter. This is also available in most of the utensils stores. You can easily pick this up.

Hand Whisks: When I was trying my hands in baking, I didn't have any plan to invest in a electric-run hand mixer. So I started with this one. The beginners, who just want to have some cake baking experience, for them this is a nice alternative. Make sure you are not tired or impatient - because blending egg and sugar using a hand whisks - is quite a job! And also don't blame me, if you need to apply pain-killer ointment in your arm, after the whisking job! :) Here, I must admit one thing - when I used to work with this... my daughters took a great part in whisking the egg with their super enthusiasm, so I never had to apply pain-killer ointment... :)

The above 3 items are a-must for baking. But I have few more items to share with you...

Silicon Cup Cake Molds: These are available in a variety of shapes and colors. The silicon-ones are easy to clean and use, however you can buy the metal versions, as well. The blue-colored muffin pan, I bought from a utensil shop at MG Road, Pune. That time I was quite surprised to find these silicon versions. The single cupcake molds are my latest captures, from the famous Dorabjee's store. This store is a gold-mine for bakers like me. I make a point to visit this place religiously, almost once in every month.

Spring Form Cake Baking Pan: The spring form pans are most useful for cheesecake. I am yet to use this one, as I am looking for a perfect occasion to bake a cheesecake. Last time I baked a cheesecake, I used my normal baking pan with a layer of aluminum foil and it was little messy. You can use spring form pans, even for regular cakes.

Electric Hand Mixer: This is probably the best buy, as of now. It has become immensely useful from the day I bought it. Be it the batter or icing mix, I use it for every purpose. If you are thinking of serious-baking, then you must go for it. Most of the electronic stores have this. I've got the simplest model from the store - Chroma, and it was not too expensive.

Icing Spatula: This icing spatula is the latest in my stock. This one worked well but I think the metal ones are definitely better than this. If you can get hold of the steel spatulas, then nothing like it. In near future, I am surely going to have a better one. However, to start with, this has been quite good.

The final one is obviously, my microwave. It's a convection one, so it is as good as an oven. For last 5 years, it has been my most faithful part of the kitchen - never betrayed in any cooking project including baking. For personal baking projects, a convection microwave is good enough. If I ever can fulfill my dream, then may be one day I'll go for a proper cake oven. Till then, I'm quite satisfied with the performance of my microwave.

So, I promise - my next blog will be the most basic cake recipe. By then, get ready, at least with the most primary items, so that by next weekend you can enjoy your homemade cake with your family and friends...! :)

My Baking Story!

Baking is my passion...and that too, mostly cakes and cookies...

Today, in my first blog, I am going to share few of my baking anecdotes with you all, before I go into recipes and ideas of baking and decorating a cake...

No, I didn't learn baking from my Mom or Grandmom. In a Bengali family, like ours, the word "baking" was not in the culinary dictionary and the word "cake" was available only during the month of Christmas. My Christian neighborhood, used to send us various special homemade goodies for their festival days, but the cake-part was not homemade at all! And that time, I used to hate that taste of too-sweet, too-gooey and too-fruity Christmas cake, which were mostly available in every local grocery store in our neighborhood... and so I hated the word "cake"...

But at the back of my mind, I was extremely curious to know about the process of making a cake. We didn't have any recipe book at home, the newspaper those days - didn't have any recipe-sharing page, also none of my friends had any information about this (neither I asked them...!) So, I was at dark for quite some time... with only this much idea, that cake is prepared by baking in oven.

The opportunity came quite surprisingly, when I visited my aunt's place for a short vacation and my cousin (aunt's daughter) told me that they've got this new cake baking oven - the basic, electric-run, round-shaped cake oven, which was used only for baking bundt cakes. So we started our experiment with the cake-oven, with a religious intention of baking a cake. The eggs were broken, the flour was measured and then there was the most difficult task of mixing sugar into the eggs. It was granular sugar and there was no mixer-grinder, so the only way left was to blend it using a spoon. I remember, we'd spent almost couple of hours just to prepare the batter, before the oven was put into action. Finally the cake was ready... but I don't remember the taste... this much I can tell you, that it was no better than the taste of cake, I was used to...!!!

My next baking experience, was in USA. The apartment, I used to live, had a beautiful cooking range with a big, working oven. I've used that oven for several of my baking projects, including cakes. But, I was not satisfied with any of the outcome, particularly for the cakes. Those days I used to subscribe recipe cards, and I tried few of those cake-baking recipes, but they were not to presentable to my guests. Either the cake got hard like brick or not well baked. So the learning process continued...

I came back to my city and those days, one famous brand started to promote their pressure-cooked ready-made cake mix product. I tried few of them and actually, the first birthday cake for my younger daughter, was actually made that way. I decorated that cake with gems and people really appreciated the initiative. But again, those were not "baked", rather "steamed"... :(

The dream of "baking a cake" came true, when I relocated to my current city and bought a convection micro-wave. The first few trials were not good, but gradually I learnt the tricks from various sources and collected few fool-proof recipes of basic cakes... Now I can bake perfect cakes, but the learning process is still on, as now I have to practice the skill of decorating the cakes - icing, frosting, fondant, drawing on cake.... there is no-end to learning!

No journey is possible without the helping hands from your fellows... My regular discussion on cooking and sometimes - baking, with my dearest friend is one such helping hand - which I must admit... she is a gem of a person and a brilliant cook, too... My daughters have always been the soul source of inspiration... because every time I baked a cake, they wanted to make it much better than the earlier one. I've learnt more tricks, being with them...

Let me start another journey of blogging with my baking... hope you will be beside me to lend your helping hands, whenever I'm in trouble...! You're always welcome to share your baking tips and experience with me! Happy baking....