1

Tracy Coyne’s Baking Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Bake

Eggs

Since we starting seeing Best Before End dates on eggs we are all al bit nervous of using one

that has past it’s Use By date and this is often wasteful as eggs have their own indicator of

when they are good by…in a glass of water a fresh egg will sink to the bottom and egg that is

past using will float to the top, with various in-between stages…

For Light Cakes…When adding eggs to your cake batter, leave a full minute between each

egg to ensure the batter doesn’t split which will cause the cake to be dense and heavy. Add

an egg then go and make yourself a cuppa, add an egg and put on a wash, add an egg and

flick through your recipe book, add an egg and check your emails or Facebook!

2

Decorating Cakes…

When cakes have level surfaces they are much easier to decorate, but level tops can be hard

to achieve…this is because the base and sides of your tin get hot in the oven causing the cake

batter at the sides to cook first. The cake bakes from outside in pushing up in the middle. It’s the

science of baking.

Try these tips

Fill your cake tins no higher than two thirds which gives enough room for a good rise. When

you’ve poured the batter, use a knife to spread the batter slightly higher up the sides

creating a slight hollow in the centre – this allows the centre to come level during baking.

For an ultra level cake, wrap the tin in a thin strip of wet towel before you put it in the oven,

this cools down the sides and ensures that your cake bakes evenly giving a beautiful flat

surface for decorating.

When your cake has cooled, flip it over and decorate the base as the top, this will give you

sharp edges for excellent icing finishes.

When ready to ice your cake, use a thin layer of butter icing and don’t worry about crumbs

coming through because this is a base layer and will be covered by another layer of

buttercream for a perfect finish…the underwear of your cake so to speak!

Freeze the cake for about 30 minutes between applying layers of icing to give you a firm

surface to work on. This also allow excellent cutting as the cake isn’t as soft and crumbly,

however it will still thaw to a beautiful soft texture when you are finished.

3

Use gel food colours to tint your icing as these won’t change the consistency of the icing,

just the colour.

Sifting Four…

I am often tempted to skip this when I’m in a hurry, or if the sieve is wet. For a quick

alternative to sifting, whisk the dry ingredients with a balloon whisk or even a fork. This will

get air into your cake early which is the objective of most cake recipes.

Weigh Rather Than Measure…

4

Baking Ingredients…In order to perfect your bakes, use weight and not volume to get the

quantities right…the science of baking requires precision and while there are many little

short cuts you can take to ensure success, it starts with knowing what’s in the bowl…

Including Liquids…This sounds like more rather than less trouble but bear with me! Weigh

your liquids rather than measuring them in a separate measuring jug…it saves washing that

extra piece of kit and keeps the ingredients in one bowl, remember 1g = 1ml, 100g = 100ml

and so on… This also means you don’t leave half your golden syrup or double cream in the

measuring jug wasting it.

Line The Tin…

Even if you have greased and floured the tin, to avoid the risk of rough edges it’s always a

good idea to line the tin with baking paper, especially for important cakes…trace the shape

of the base on a sheet of baking paper and cut to measure…if you have a favourite size tin

you can cut several at a time and have them handy for the next bake.

For cakes requiring a long baking time, double or triple line the tin with baking paper or

even a brown paper bag cut along the seams, this will protect the outside of the cake from

becoming too dark and dry while the centre cooks…this is particularly important at this time

of year with Christmas cakes.

If one part of your bake is browning sooner that the rest and you want to protect it while

still leaving it in the oven, make a little ‘tent’ with a piece of baking paper and place it over

the exposed edge to protect it from over browning or burning.

Don’t Overfill the Oven…

Do two consecutive bakes rather than over crowd the oven…if the oven is overfull it will

affect the temperature and also runs the risk of generating steamy rather than dry heat

which is what you want for cakes, pastry and biscuits.

5

Is It Done..?

Your cake is baked when a skewer or toothpick comes out clean, but also you can tell by

putting your ear to the cake and listening for snap, crackle & pop…the cake will be pretty

silent when done as the liquid batter will have turned to cake and will no longer be

bubbling.

Know your oven….

Most ovens have a hot spot, know where it is and compensate by positioning your tray

accordingly – mine is the back left so I never leave the cake tin in the centre, I keep it slightly

right of centre instead.

Use the base element in your oven for biscuits and pastry – it will give you a crisper finish

than the fan oven will.

When storing your Christmas Bakes and Cakes, use your Granny’s biscuit tin rather than the

Tupperware – the cake needs to be ventilated to prevent moulding so never use an airtight

container. It would be a shame to retrieve the cake the week before Christmas from under

the stairs to find it covered in a furry green coat!

Feed your Christmas cake every now and then with a shot of Christmas Cheer in the weeks

running up to the 25th- this will keep it moist, and make it feel part of the family! Whisky,

Brandy or Sherry will do depending on your preference.

6

Cooling Cakes….

Get your cake out of the tin as soon as it is safe to do so without risking tears or breaks – the

cake will continue to cook from the heat of the tin for a couple of minutes if left in the tin.

If allowed to cool in the tin, the cake will begin to sweat and you risk it being a little soggy at

the edges so turn it out onto a wire rack as soon as you can – the wire rack stops that cake

from sweating too!

Drape the cake in a clean, dry tea towel to keep the crumb soft if you are cooling overnight

and icing the following day.

If you are making an occasion cake and want to make the layers in batches, you can freeze

cake layers wrapped in cling wrap once cooled for several months.

Melting Chocolate…

Place the chocolate in a bowl for one minute on high in the microwave and short twenty

second bursts thereafter stirring after each round until glossy and smooth.

Or…if you’re melting chocolate chips, sit the whole unopened bag in a bowl of hot water for

a few minutes scrunching it up halfway through the time until it feel free of lumps and

bumps, then snip the corner of the bag and squeeze…

To make perfect chocolate ganache without the drama, scald the cream in a saucepan and

pour over the chocolate pieces in a bowl. Cover with cling film and allow to sit for 5-7

minutes. Stir through with a whisk or fork and you’ll have perfect ganache.

Colouring Cake Batter…

When colouring cake batter, take a small amount of batter in a separate bowl and add all

the colour to it mixing thoroughly, you can fold this through the rest of the batter then

preserving the air you have carefully incorporated into the cake…colouring the whole mix

will require that you lose too much of that precious air…

Speciality Cakes…

Angel Food Cake – Cool this very delicate cake in it’s tin, upsidedown, resting over the neck of a

wine bottle. This ensures that all the air bubbles you’ve trapped into the cake have a chance to set

rather than collapse in on themselves.

7

Scones - Bake from frozen…this means you can pop a batch on a baking tray in the freezer anytime

from now, and bake them while the kids are rummaging through their gifts on Christmas Morning!

Muffins and Cupcakes - Pipe your batter from a disposable piping bag or a food bag for speedy, no

mess tray after tray of buns…and freeze one tray without baking as these can go from freezer to

oven with an extra five minutes added to the baking time.

Madeleines…Mix all the ingredients as per the recipe except the melted butter. Refrigerate

overnight and in the morning add the warm butter to the chilled batter mixing thoroughly – this hot

and cold mix, together with the long slow activation of the baking powder will give you perfect hump

backed madeleines every time.

8

Meringues…When the baking time has finished, turn off the oven and leave the meringues inside

until completely cool (or overnight), this slow cooling will ensure that your meringues have no

cracks, and also allows you reduce the baking temperature to keep that snow white colour.

Choux Pastry…Like the Meringues above, when the baking time has finished, turn off the oven and

leave the choux pastries inside until completely cool which continues the drying out and ensures you

have crisp dry shells ready to be piped full of cream or crème patissiere.

Fruit Cakes…To ensure little bursts of juicy flavour soak the fruits for a few hours ahead of starting

your bake and the fruit will absorb the liquid making the cake moist and flavoursome when finished.

Hot Tip…

Know how to use the timer on your oven – typically it will ask you two questions…How Long

Is The Cooking Time? When Do You Want To Eat?

Being able to time your oven to turn on and off itself will save lots of rushing around

generally but will also enable you have a well deserved sleep in on Christmas morning while

the Turkey is roasting away in the oven!