Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Basic Baking for Non-Bakers

Last week, a blogger friend asked me how to bake the simplest cake as she has never ever baked anything before and she wanted to try it out. She warned me that I have to show the simplest most basic method and also asked what kinda "kah-changg" (equipment or utensils) she needed to invest in.

Well, I wanted to do the Simple Butter Cake from scratch... but after rummaging through my larder, I found this packet of Pillsbury Cake Mix which I had bought a while ago. I figured this would be even easier and would be perfect for someone who has never baked before.

You can get this cake-mix at the supermarket... Pillsbury is one of the more well-known brands.
Instructions are simple - only 3 of them, hehe!
Kah-changg needed: A basic hand-held cake beater/mixer will do... a large bowl...

... a pliable plastic scraper - for scraping the batter off the bowl...


... a Measuring Cup... pyrex would be good as sometimes you may need to melt butter (or anything else) in it using the microwave oven...... and since we are making Cup Cakes, you would need some sturdy cupcake/muffin paper cups like these...
The method is really simple: Just combine the water, eggs and oil (but I used melted butter, for better taste & aroma)... then add in the cakemix slowly and beat on slow speed...
After you have added in all the cake-mix, increase the speed of the beater and beat for about 2 minutes, till mixture lightens up in colour...
Spoon them into the paper cups, till 3/4 full...
Place them in the oven, at 180 degrees C....
... bake for 25 minutes...
... and there, you have your yummy Cup Cakes! Easy, right?
My verdict of this Pillsbury Lemon cakemix: While the texture was soft and light, the cakes were a tad too sweet although the lemon flavour was pretty strong. Great if you like your cakes on the sweet side.

I would still prefer to do my Butter/Cup Cakes from scratch as I can control the amount of sugar. I will do that and share with you all later :-))

7 comments:

boo_licious said...

I guess this would be good for a quickie BUT like you, I kinda prefer the old fashioned butter cake made with real butter.

Anonymous said...

haha thanks..its really good for amateur baker like me to play around with..

Precious Pea said...

This pre-mix not cheap also right? I would also prefer to do it from scratch so that i can adjust the sweetness level.

PureGlutton said...

boolicious: Yeah, nothing beats the traditional wholesome Butter Cake, eh! But i keep a spare packet of these instant cake mixes around in case of "emergencies", hehe!

PureGlutton said...

kampungboycitygal: Yes, it's convenient and easy, no need to sweat too much :)

PureGlutton said...

Pea: This particular flavour cake-mix used to cost about RM8+ but yesterday at Jusco I saw it has gone up to RM9.90. They have other flavours/ types of cakes, at different prices.

Babe_KL said...

nowadays its no longer cheap to bake a basic butter cake cos a block of butter alone if you buy from supermart is already RM8 sighhh...