Overlooked Baking Mistakes

So, last Sunday I was baking a Cranberry Pumpkin Bread. It tasted great when everything was done, but I made some mistakes. Not mistakes that affected the taste or anything, but these mistakes made my bread look funny. There were two mistakes... Mistake #1) I did not put enough batter in the pan so after it was cooked and out of the pan, they looked very short. Mistake #2) I kept opening the door to the oven! This resulted in them having to bake for longer, and the cool air rushing into the oven also made them sink a bit.

In honor of these mistakes I have created a list I like to call: Overlooked Baking Mistakes.

1) The Yield! Knowing the yield will help you know how much batter to put into each pan. Also a thing to note is if you put less or more batter in your pans, this will effect how long they will have to bake:-)

2) Knowing your oven. Knowing your oven includes, whether your oven is hotter or cooler than the average oven, does your oven have hot spots, and what kind of oven do you have? These questions will determine whether you will have to rotate the pans so it bakes evenly, when you should preheat your oven, and so on.

3) Opening the oven too soon! Yep. I am pretty sure everyone is guilty of this. Patience  Grasshopper!! You have to use other clues! Like, "Whoa that is way too pale! I know that won't be done yet."

4) Over/Under measuring. This can completely throw off your recipe.

5) Over/Under beating the batter. If you over-beat the batter it will be stiff, however if you under-beat the batter, chances are you will come across flour clumps when your eating what you baked later. So you really need to trust yourself and find that happy medium!

6) Folding certain ingredients in to the mix. This is so important for when you want what your baking to be airy, but it is also handy for when you mix blueberries or other fruits that you don't want to get smashed:-)

7) Bake time. It goes without saying that if you bake, say a cookie, too long it will be crunchy and if you bake it for less time it will be chewy - So pay attention to the bake time.

And last but not least...8) The pan sized. The size of the pan will often determined how long your baked goodie will be in the oven. It will also determined how many you can put in the oven at once!

***To prove my mistakes did not effect the taste of the Cranberry Pumpkin Bread... Well, I can't post a picture because they have already been eaten!!

Simple Vanilla Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting!

Hello!! This is So Easy My Cat Could Bake It, my blog about my baking journey! I chose that name for my blog because Einstein, my cat, is my buddy! Right now I am experimenting with baking to see if it is something I want to continue to do after high school or just continue with it as a hobby.  Each week I will bake a recipe, then write about whether it passed the taste test, what I liked and didn't like, what I learned, and so on.

Out of the oven

So, lets give this a shot, shall we? For my first recipe I chose a simple vanilla cupcake with a vanilla butter cream frosting. Why? I am a beginner at baking, and I was looking at some baking blogs and they all recommended starting with something simple... Something that doesn't have a dozen ingredients. So I went and looked in my cupcake cookbook and there it was. The name of my cupcake cookbook is The Cupcake: 80 Cute and Colorful Cupcakes by Love Food from Parragon Books.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Cupcake-Lifes-Better-With/dp/1445456125/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1379860880&sr=8-7&keywords=the+cupcake%3A+80+cute+and+colorful+cupcakes

Thoughts... It went really well, though I had a little hiccup with the frosting. When I added the milk it would not mix into the correct frosting consistency and that was because I was mixing it by hand. So I put it in the mixer and it got to that nice frosting consistency.

Einstein trying the frosting!

Nice fluffy frosting

The Taste Test - drum roll please! The frosting: Oh wow! It was awesome! This recipe made a lot of frosting, so I was afraid the amount I put on the cupcakes would make it way too sweet, but nope. It was nice and smooth and it was fluffy! The cupcake: It was also good, but it wasn't as light and airy as a cupcake should be, it was a bit more dense, more like a muffin, I guess. The cupcake wasn't as airy as the cake box variety nor as light as a bakery cupcake. So I think I will have to torment everyone by making another batch :-) FYI, the frosting recipe was also from the cupcake book.

Next time I will try mixing it in the mixer to see if that will help air get into the batter, thus making it fluffier. I will also maybe add baking powder. I did not put it in the mix because the recipe said not to if your flour was self-rising, I wasn't sure about the flour, so I did not put any in.  

Overall: On a scale from 1 (hated it) to 5 (loved it) this recipe was a 4 (liked it)

***Mom said the flour is not self-rising. She gets the all purpose variety because it is used in more recipes.... thus, it's more versatile.