There’s an old take that implies that if your heart is heavy, you should eat something sweet.
I subscribe to the idea, even if I’ve hardly followed it. To be honest, I think some of the moments when I’ve felt most down could have been fixed with a little something sweet.
Baking has always been touch and go for me – brilliant creations when cooking alone, weird flops when people come over.
So I have decided to fullproof my baking.
Immediacy
Fresh bakes are amazing. They give you that immediate hit of ‘yum,’ especially after smelling the aromas of the oven doing its thing.
I’m like this with bread, rolls and buns.
‘Hot out of the oven and into the mouth’ is my motto – I highly prefer the shortest time possible between the two.
This means everything else to go with those rolls and loaves has to be prepped well in advance to ensure that happens.
We will clean up later. A fresh slice will always fall victim to butter and marmalade, or cheese, ham and tomato.
Stay a while
To combat my ‘flop’ pandemic, I let things sit for a night. This goes for cakes, cupcakes and bakes that have frosting or filling, because I feel the bake matures overnight. I also get time to correct any mistakes.
Just like with a good beef stew or oxtail, I never eat it the day I make it.
Everyone in the home knows this. As the bake rests, everything comes together.
This is especially beneficial if the crumb in your cake didn’t turn out well and looks like it might collapse under the weight of the frosting.
Give it time to ‘chill’ and hang out.
Leave cakes on the counter overnight; they’ll be fine.
I tend to go for shock therapy.
Bake it, cool it, frost it, fridge it. I then take the cake out of the fridge to allow it to come to room temperature before serving.
Airtight containers are your friends here – super, super vital.
Keep It Simple
If you are starting out as a baker, don’t try to take on a four-tiered Black Forest cake with an Italian meringue buttercream frosting and reduced berry filling before understanding the fundamentals of the baking process.
Start with a simple cake, a citrus loaf or vanilla cupcakes, until you come to understand the relationship between heat, your stove, your hands and your patience.
Everything must operate in harmony. You can then start stepping it up if you can bake the simple cakes without having to look at the recipe.
Elevate What You Already Know
If you only know a handful of recipes, consider elevating those.
With so many recipes on hand for so many different types of cakes, master the basics and use that as a foundation to go further – a simple beat-and-bake cake with lemon and orange zest and fresh juice becomes a citrus cake.
Swap the zest for fresh berries and you have something entirely different with minimal effort and changes.
Whip up some cream cheese with icing sugar instead of butter and you have cream cheese frosting which gives a totally different take on your bake. It’s the small changes that make the biggest difference.
Treat Baking As Therapy
As said in the beginning, something sweet has an almost healing effect.
I take my time and try not to rush the process while enjoying every moment.
Putting things together that then come out as a final product is fulfilling.
We are humans, born to create, invent, make anew and produce from random things around us. Mastering what goes with what is where the true skill lies.
Parting Shot
So as you bake, cook or prepare in your kitchen, remember you are providing nourishment, and, in some cases where you might not even be aware, healing.
Don’t stop when you have failed. Don’t see it merely as a chore.
See every act you perform in the kitchen as an act of love, and I promise you, it will begin to feel like it.
Happy cooking and baking.
