Superfine (Caster) Sugar

      For sponge cakes and chocolate cakes superfine (caster) sugar is best. Superfine sugar granules are finer than normal everyday granulated sugar and will produce a slightly lighter cake. However, it is perfectly fine to use granulated sugar if that’s all you have. It will still produce a cake that is tasty and delicious.

      Brown Sugar

      There are all sorts of brown sugars, but for the fruit cake I use dark brown soft sugar as it produces a darker colored cake. When fresh it should be slightly damp. You can use lighter colored sugar if you prefer although I would avoid turbinado (or demerara or “raw”) sugar as it has an odd and distinctive taste. Make sure you seal the packet well after using brown sugar or it will solidify into an unuseable solid sugar brick! You can make your own brown sugar by mixing white granulated sugar with molasses. Use one tablespoon of molasses to every cup of white sugar.

      Butter and Margarine

      There are many types of specialist baking fats and margarines available, but for baking I always use butter, so I’ve specified butter in all the baking recipes. You are perfectly free to substitute something else you prefer. However, read the packaging as some of the low fat spreads cannot be used for baking. The one area I would never use anything other than butter is buttercream and, actually, I personally prefer lightly salted to unsalted butter—but again it’s a question of personal taste. I would never use margarine to make buttercream. I don’t like the taste of it and also some of the very soft margarines are designed not to harden and therefore don’t hold their shapes particularly well.

      White Fat

      Now I know that cake decorators in countries such as the USA have been using white fat for years to produce white icing. We have white vegetable fats here in the UK but it’s something we don’t normally use in this way. However, when you need a bright white, soft frosting, normal buttercream just won’t do, it simply isn’t white enough. So I started to invesigate easy white icings (frostings). There are different methods and ways of making white frostings, but by far the easiest way was simply to substitute white fat for butter in the buttercream recipe. I found I could buy white vegetable fat that contained no hydrogenated vegetable oil, no "e" numbers and no colors or preservatives and that it produced a good white icing. So go on Britain—try it!

      Scales and Mixers

      If you are serious about baking, I would strongly recommend that you buy a set of scales—they don’t have to be expensive. They will allow you to use recipes (and not just baking ones) from all over the world easily and correctly without resorting to guesswork. And as I mentioned in the flour section above, weighing your flour, especially if it’s a bit old, could save you from a flat disaster!

      It’s the same with mixers. If you make cakes and frosting regularly, I would really recommend buying one. I have owned a large free standing mixer (which I have polished up for its moment of fame here in this book) for many years now and it just makes life so much simpler. Tip the (weighed!) ingredients in, switch it on and off it goes. However, I do appreciate that big mixers like mine are expensive so if you’re just starting out, invest in a cheap hand held one—I did. You can use it for other things too—whipping cream or making pancake batter for example.

      LINING A CAKE PAN

      Okay, i’ll admit it, lining a cake pan is pretty boring but it will ensure that your cake comes out all in one piece.

      Fruit Cake Pans

      Lining a pan for a fruitcake is really important to prevent the sides and base from scorching during its long baking time.

      Measure the height and circumference of the pan and cut four lengths of waxed, greaseproof, or baking paper to that length and just wider than the height of the pan. Place to one side. Standing the pan on the paper, draw round the base three times and depending upon what shape pan you are using cut out a three discs or squares. Cut a small hole into the center of one of them. Wrap two of the long sections around the outside of the pan and hold in place with a string (don’t use plastic string). Make a fold along the long edge of the two remaining long strips and cut a fringe into it. Rub a little butter around the inside of the pan and stand the long strips inside. The fringes should allow the strips to stand upright and fit right into the edges of the pan. Place the two whole base sections into the bottom of the pan.

      Fill the pan two thirds full with fruit cake mixture and rest the remaining bit of paper with the hole on top. The hole will allow steam to escape while it’s cooking.

      Sponge or Chocolate Cake Pans

      To line a pan for a sponge or chocolate cake, rub a little butter around the inside of the pan to hold the lining in place. Measure the circumference of the tin and cut a strip of waxed, greaseproof, or baking paper long enough to stand around the outside of the pan and wide enough so that when it’s standing it’s just a little higher than the top of the pan. Stand the pan on the paper and draw round the base. Cut out your circle or square. Stand the strip of paper around the inside of the pan and place the base section in the bottom.

      TIP: Remember not every cake has to be an all singing, all dancing one. There’s immense pleasure to be found in a simple slice of sponge cake with jam and buttercream.

      Using Baked Bean Cans

      It's

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