Saturday, April 9, 2011

Trouble Shooting and General Principles

    People have taught me tons of valuable ideas, and I've figured out a few things that greatly improved my baking and my life. Those are good things, too, because to live more than 50 years and learn just nothing would be sad, wouldn't it?   Fortunately for the reader, only a few are appearing today in this blog:

1.  Cook when you can enjoy it; eat fruit with cheese or leftovers when you can't.  Cook with good friends whenever possible.
2.  Double the vanilla.  Use real vanilla, of course, Mexican vanilla when you can get it.
3.  Check, check, check your cake once it's in the oven!  Every oven is different, and a slightly gooey cake is always better than a dried-out or burnt one.  Throw a huge sheet of aluminum foil over a cake that threatens to burn on top.  Gently rotate your cake if you suspect the oven heats unevenly.
4.  Use an oven thermometer to check your oven temp.  My ancient Whirlpool electric checks pretty close to the dial set temperature, but still it somehow almost always cooks faster than recipe cooking times suggest.
5. Play.  If you think the ingredient you have in mind would suit your taste better than the one in the recipe, try it.
6.  It's okay to throw out a baking disaster.  You really don't have to eat that.
7.  Cake has a short quality life-span.  It should be eaten right away.  Never hoard; always share.

No comments:

Post a Comment