Baking tips with Kandy Shepherd
I’m sharing here wisdom that I gleaned from my pre-author “day job” as a magazine editor-in-chief, both in Australia and the UK. Most of the magazines I worked on had food content, some more than others.
I was fortunate enough to work with the most wonderful home economists, chefs and food stylists. They were responsible for recipe creation, testing and food photography. As editor, I was generally office bound, but tried to spend as much time as I could with the food teams, jumping at any chance to attend a shoot. Along the way I observed, asked questions, and learned a lot from the experts.
While there are certain things I cook without a recipe, where I use whatever is in the fridge and the pantry. With a dash of this and a dash of that, it usually turns out fine.
But I also love seeking out recipes to try something new and different. From my foodie friends I picked up some tips:
• Read a recipe all the way through before you start—and ideally before you go shopping.
• Check you’ve got the ingredients required—or what you can safely substitute.
• Many recipes give time estimates for both preparation and cooking times. It’s a good idea to take heed—and to watch out for that “chill for two hours before proceeding” sometimes hidden in the “method”.
• If you’re attempting something ambitious for a dinner party or family occasion, try the recipe out in advance, so you’re not running around the kitchen, red-faced and flustered in the kitchen and asking yourself, “Why the heck did I decide to do this?” when the guests start to arrive.
• Do what the experts do and have everything weighed out, measured, diced and sliced on hand and ready to use before you actually start cooking.
Some favourite tips I picked up related specifically to baking—something I really enjoy. (Blame my sweet tooth.)
Working on large-circulating magazines, we’d often get readers phoning in to ask where they had gone wrong with the recipe. Sometimes they’d made substitutions that simply didn’t work. We explained that baking involves chemical reactions between ingredients to make, for example, cakes rise. Substitute with something else and the recipe might not work. (Please don’t ask me about how disastrous it is for a recipe with an actual mistake in it to make it through the proof-reading process and into the reader’s hands!)
• In baking, it’s important that ingredients are weighed and measured accurately—using either standard size measuring cups and spoons or a digital scale. With dry ingredients like flour, spoon the flour into the cup and level across with a flat blade. A measuring jug is good for liquid ingredients.
• All ovens aren’t the same and correct baking temperature can be vital. Learn to know the quirks of your oven. You can test its accuracy using an oven thermometer.
• Mixing muffins needs a light hand—ten stirs should be all it needs to blend wet and dry ingredients together.
• For cupcakes to come out of the oven looking the same size, measure exactly one-third of a cup of mixture for each cupcake. Takes a little longer but works so much better than the haphazard dollop here, dollop there method.
• Same goes for loading cake pans for layer cakes. Measure the batter so the same amount goes in each pan.
• Decorating a cake with those tiny silver balls or small sweets? Place them accurately on the cake surface using tweezers.
• Ensure all ingredients are fresh, especially baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) and baking powder. The tin lurking at the back of the pantry with a pre-historic use-by date might not give best results.
• Try not to “taste test” so many of the sweet treats you’ve made that the serving plate is half empty by the time guests arrive. Er, that advice is just for me!
Do you have a favourite baking tip to share? I’d love to see it!
Kandy Shepherd is a best-selling, award-winning author of contemporary romance. Her heartfelt, passionate stories are set in exciting locations around the world and are published in multiple languages. Kandy believes in love-at-first-sight and real-life romance—she and her husband of many years decided to spend their lives together after three days! She loves it when readers tell her that her books make them laugh and make them cry. Kandy lives near Sydney, Australia with her husband and numerous four-legged friends.
HIS CANDY CANE CONTRACT
The loss of her parents makes working the holidays difficult for event planner Marissa. But planning a party for tycoon Oliver is an offer she can’t refuse. The problem? Oliver—her childhood crush!—needs her to be his fake date… Following his beloved grandfather’s passing, Oliver’s dedicated to giving their family manor the farewell it deserves. But his grieving grandmother is convinced that Marissa is his girlfriend, and why shatter her dreams? Yet as the festivities ramp up, the terms of their deal blur. Is their chemistry real or just a trick of the twinkle lights?
