Basic Vanilla Cake!

This recipe is for plain vanilla cake batter. Preparation time shouldn't take you  more than 30 minutes; this includes gathering and prepping the ingredients. The cooking times vary depending on what you're baking in. I'll be updating this particular post with baking times for different types of cake pans. This recipe has the baking time for a standard Bundt pan.


2 sticks of unsalted butter or 1 Crisco Baking Stick(butter flavored)
(if using Crisco Baking Stick, add 2 Tbsp. of warm water)
2 cups of sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
3 cups of flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
*optional, 12 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate chips or frozen fruit or berries.

*Preheat oven to 325° and spray your pan with PAM for Baking. 


1) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla extract until you reach a light and fluffy consistency(if using butter stick, cream butter stick and warm water first). Add the eggs one at a time.



2) While the mixer is creaming the butter, sugar, and eggs, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. 


3) Add the flour mixture and then the buttermilk in that order in 3 additions until all the dry ingredients are fully incorporated. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl in between adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk. *Fold in the chocolate chips or frozen fruit with the spatula.


4) Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for about 70 minutes or until the top of the cake is a light golden brown. Use a toothpick or wooden squeaker to check and see if the cake is cooked all the way through.  



5) Let the cake cool to room temperature for no less than 30 minutes before removing the cake from the pan. Place a cake plate on of the Bundt pan, take a few deep breaths, then flip the pan onto the cake plate. 


Your finished product should look like this:

This cake, though time consuming and incredibly massive, is perfect for social events when you want a dessert that is delicious, and filling. It's good plain, or served in a bowl of milk.


Best of luck, and as always, HAPPY EATING!
-M.E.B.

Baking!

Baking is probably one of the most rewarding and satisfying kitchen activities. I like to make things from scratch, I believe that it is not really baking unless you started from scratch. Using boxed cake and batter mixes takes the magic out of your time in the kitchen, leaving you with something overly sweetened and usually containing one or more artificial ingredients that you probably don't want floating around your system. It truly is more rewarding and magical to turn a handful of raw ingredients into something delicious. 

Don't get me wrong, I am all for crappy food and ingredients if you're buying from a bakery counter or eating out at a restaurant. If you're making something at home, you get the luxury of knowing and picking what goes into your baked goods. I've got a few great tips, tricks, and blatant product placement you can use while baking that will help you achieve success and make baking easier. 

Crisco Baking Sticks instead of real butter.

Most baking recipes call for two sticks(one cup) of unsalted butter; which is great, but from extensive experience, I can honestly say that my baked goods came out better when I used Crisco Baking Sticks instead of butter. There are several advantages to using Crisco in place of real butter. When baking with butter, it is imperative that it be room temperature. Normally, what happens when you get home from the store is you take the sticks of butter you bought and you put them in your fridge or freezer. Frozen or cold butter is very hard to work with and doesn't mix well with the other ingredients. Crisco Baking Sticks do not require refrigeration and are ready to use right out of the package! All you need to do is add 2 Tbsp. of water for every 1 Crisco Baking Stick.

Another advantage to using Crisco Baking Sticks instead of butter is greasing and flouring pans. Butter wrappers have some residual butter left of the wrapper, but not enough to coat a pan. Crisco wrappers have tons of left over sticky bits to rub into every knock and cranny of the pan saving you a step and preventing wasted ingredients! 

There are some things, like crumb topping for example, that I recommend using real butter for. Anything where butter is you're main wet ingredient or provider of moisture should be made old school using real, unsalted, room temperature butter.

For those of you who aren't super into using Crisco to coat your pans, I suggest using PAM for Baking. This product combines all the amazing non-stick magic of regular PAM and flour to reach every last inch of even the most intricate bake ware like the infamous Bundt pan. PAM+flour=perfectly dislodged baked goods!

Let's talk about eggs. Eggs are required for most baked recipes to help bind all the ingredients together during the baking process. Earlier, I mentioned that if you're using butter, that the butter be room temperature, the same rules apply for eggs. Working with cold eggs slows down the baking process because it chills whatever you put it in and then it takes longer for the batter to come to room temperature and for the ovens magical ability to transform gooey batter into cake. You'll find that your finished product will be lighter and fluffier if the eggs you're working with are room temperature. It's best to take the eggs out of the fridge a few hours before you begin mixing all of your ingredients, but if you don't have that kind of time or simply forgot, have no fear, there's a fix for that. Take a bowl of slightly warm water, bordering on hot, but not hot enough to cook the eggs, and place the eggs in the bowl and wait for the water to come back to room temperature. 

I hope this post helps you achieve more success in baking and satisfies your sweet tooth. 

HAPPY EATING!

-M.E.B.

Buttermilk!

I'm sure that you've come across recipes that call for buttermilk and have thought to yourself, "Damn it! I don't want to have to make a trip to the store to buy buttermilk!!!"** It probably wasn't that corny or scripted, but it's a common thought shared by many bakers and cooks. 


Buttermilk originally was the liquid left after churning butter our of cream. It's pretty much just slightly fermented milk. Buttermilk has a higher viscosity than plain milk(meaning that it sticks to the side of the glass more). Buttermilk has a bit of a tart or sour taste compared to milk due to the higher levels of lactic acid. Lactic acid is a byproduct of fermented lactose, which is the primary sugar found in milk. 


One of the drawbacks to going out and buying buttermilk is how much of it gets wasted if you don't actually drink buttermilk or have other uses for it. Most recipes call for about a cup, and the rest is either left to rot in the fridge or poured down the drain. During the course of my work in the kitchen, and doing some crafty cost saving research on the internet, I have found a way to reduce cost, time, and eliminate waste when working with buttermilk. 


Making buttermilk is quite simple and takes about 5 minutes; 4 of those minutes are waiting. All you need is milk and vinegar or lemon juice. The formula is easy to remember, for every cup of milk, just add a table spoon of vinegar or lemon juice, stir, and wait about four or five minutes. You'll notice that the milk has thickened slightly, and will have just the slightest bit of a sour taste and smell. You'll know you've got buttermilk when you give the liquid a gentle stir and it puts a think coat on the side of the glass. Viola, buttermilk!


**Now, let's look at the big picture. I mentioned earlier how making buttermilk at home reduces cost and saves time. Think of it this way; if you were going out to buy buttermilk, you'd have to start your car, drive to the store, dig through the entire dairy case looking for a product you're unfamiliar with, check out, drive home, and pour what you need out of the container. Then, as previously mentioned, the rest of the container will most likely sit in your fridge and be forgotten about. What a waste of your valuable cooking time and gas money.