After years of scratch baking, Debbie VanDerLeest can smell, view and feel when a cake is done just right.
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But for those considering baking their very first cake, the Little Chute woman offers this advice: do not be afraid to experiment.
“If it flops it flops,” she said. “So I try really hard not to flop.”
While boxed cakes are easy and serve a purpose, home bakers contend they aren’t quite as good as those made from scratch.
“Scratch cakes,” writes HGTV, “take a tightrope balance of flours, leavening agents, liquids, fats and flavorings. Everything must be just perfect so the cake rises, doesn’t crumble and tastes just right.”
Gretchen Martini of Neenah bakes cakes from scratch simply because she enjoys the experience. And soon she’ll be supplying fresh baked products to the French Flea in downtown Neenah.
“I like to tweak recipes, and I think you can tell the difference in taste. Some people can’t, but I think you can,” she said. “And the cake is going to have more flavor. And it’s going to be moister. For me it’s the experience more than anything. It’s an enjoyable thing to do.”
Martini’s mom also was an avid baker, she said.
“We grew up with homemade bread, rolls, cakes and cookies. I never saw a store-bought loaf of bread growing up. As I got older and had my first daughter ... I wanted her to be able to come home and have the same experience, the smells in the home. It may not be inherited but it’s definitely conditioned. If you grow up with it, you’ll carry on that love, and even if you don’t do it yourself, you’ll still appreciate it.”
Shortly after her daughter’s birth eight years ago, Martini found she had a wheat and gluten allergy, so scratch baking also became a necessity.
Like Martini, VanDerLeest’s mom baked everything from scratch.
“I come from a family of 10 brothers and sisters, so my mother baked and canned everything from scratch,” she said. “Because it was such a large family it was all just the basic baking. But she could take anything and make it fantastic with whatever was in the cupboard.”
VanDerLeest began experimenting with baking when she married Tom 38 years ago using family recipes and those given to her by her mother-in-law, who also knew her way around an oven.
Unlike Martini and VanDerLeest, Meghan Hanley’s foray into baking cakes wasn’t inherited. It began when the Kimberly woman had a little extra time on her hands about five years ago.
“I was not working and I was never good at baking,” she said. “I had a lot of free time, so I just decided to start baking stuff. Cupcakes (which are very trendy right now) became like my thing that I always brought to parties.”
Hanley began scouring the Internet for recipes and borrowed some cookbooks from her mother who collects them. She also had a big discovery.
“The biggest reason that I was not good at baking was because I didn’t follow the recipe close enough,” she said. “When you are first starting out, you need to follow the recipe exactly. It’s not like when you’re cooking and add a little of this or a little of that. You really have to know what you’re doing, and once you do know a little better you can adjust recipes a little bit.”
Martini, who uses a lot of recipes handed down from family, also finds recipes online, watches the Food Network and for years subscribed to Martha Stewart Living.
She suggests that novice bakers start with simple recipes.
“If you’ve never done any baking or cooking, don’t overwhelm yourself, start with something simple,” Martini said. “You will get a good result, and you won’t get frustrated.”
Baking cakes from scratch gives VanDerLeest a huge sense of pride. But occasionally, she will use a boxed cake mix and then jazz it up. Like she recently did with a pineapple upside down cake substituting pineapple juice for the water.
“Then what I did was I had extra batter left and didn’t want to throw it away,” she said. “I decided to make cupcakes and diced up the extra pineapple I had and mixed it with the batter. The cupcakes turned out fantastic.”
Martini will also use a box cake now and again, but not too willingly.
“I have a hard time opening up a box, but in a pinch, I’ll do it,” she said.
RECIPES
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
½ cup butter
1¾ cups sugar
½ cup sour cream
4 tablespoons cocoa
½ cup oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2½ cups flour
2 cups grated zucchini
½ teaspoon baking powder
Grease and flour a 9x13-inch pan and preheat oven to 350-degrees.
Cream together butter, sugar and cocoa. Add sour cream, oil, eggs and vanilla and mix. In bowl, sift flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together. Add grated zucchini. Pour batter into pan then sprinkle with a little sugar, ½ to 1 cup chocolate chips and ½ cup nuts of your choosing. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.
From: Debbie VanDerLeest
Carrot Cake
4 eggs
¾ cups canola oil
½ cup applesauce
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour or Spelt baking flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple (squeeze out most of the juice before adding)
Frosting:
½ cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-by-13-inch pan. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots and pineapple. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.
From: Gretchen Martini
Coconut Snowball Cupcakes
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups beached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1½ teaspoons vanilla
1½ cups coconut
Cream cheese frosting:
1½ cup unsalted butter, softened
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2½ cups flaked coconut
Red or rose-pink food coloring
Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in center of oven. Grease 10 of the cups in two extra large muffin tins. Fold 1½ cups coconut into batter. Fill the cups three-quarters full and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in tins on racks for 5 minutes. Then turn out onto racks to cool completely.
For frosting: Combine butter, cream cheese, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until smooth and spreadable. Add a drop of food coloring and blend well to make a light pink frosting.
Once cupcakes are cool, freeze then (in batches, if necessary) on a parchment or wax-paper-lined tray for 20 minutes to make them easier to frost. Remove from freezer and spread a thick, even layer of frosting on each cupcake. Them freeze again for at least 30 minutes up to a day.
Remove and spread second, thick layer of frosting over cupcakes. Sprinkle generously with coconut (approximately ¼ cup).
From: Hallmark Magazine recipe, courtesy Meghan Hanley
Tips for baking cakes
æ Turn oven on 10 to 15 minutes before planning to use so it can heat to the baking temperature.
æ Measure liquid by placing a standard liquid-ingredient measuring cup on the counter. Pour the liquid in the cup and check measurement at eye level.
æ Beat the batter for the time specified in cake recipe, using low or medium speed on an electric mixer. If mixing by hand, beat at a rate of 150 strokes per minute. Do not over-beat, which breaks down the cake structure and causes low volume and shrinkage as the cake cooks.
æ Cakes are done when a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.
Source: www.bettycrocker.com
