And the Surf cakes were...

Hello everyone,

 

A wonderful Friday to us all, or a wonderful any-day-it-is-today-for-you... lol

 

So I'm beginning to type out how we made all those tasty treats from the first Bake off with Chizzie and Doro. Since this is the first of this 'series', I assure you it will be long because most of my baking hacks will be found here. I'll only reference this post in future ones so I don't need to talk as much then. So do relax, read slowly or in bits at a time and enjoy...

 

Today, I'm going to reveal what the surf cakes were actually meant to be had it not been for our fan that circulated the heat, and 'created' our surf cakes... lol...

 

 

So our surf cakes, plain, Milo-d and raisin-ed, were actually (suspense-creating drumroll) cupcakes!!!! From my all time favourite cup cake recipe at Food.com. Awesome taste and texture and easy to follow and make, this recipe is now my go to standard cake recipe. I'm yet to try any other... this just brings out what I, Ofosua, want in a cake. Do try it sometime and tell me what you like about it...

 

Now on to my hacks for this recipe...

 

 

Sugar

The recipe says 3/4 cup of sugar. Since I don't like extremely-sugary-tasting food, I used 1/2 cup. I believe it maintained the rich sweet taste without making me feel I was chewing on cake-textured sugar... lol

 

Milk

My next hack is the milk. I used powdered milk and water, and not fresh milk, or even evaporated milk. Can you guess why? It's because powdered milk allows you to cheat on milk content and flavour without compromising the fluid content of the cake batter.... so cool!! I could literally add a full cup of powdered milk and 3/4 of water and still not noticeably upset the fluid balance in the batter. I end up with creamier cake... and trust me, with this recipe, creamier is just to live for! (Not die for, cos you won't be alive to eat it it if you die for it 😂😂😂)

 

Salt

Another hack is the amount of salt I used. Though this recipe said 1/2 teaspoon, I used 1 levelled teaspoon. Why? Well, with a little more salt you could enhance your sweet taste as you reduce your sugar content. Awesome hack for me, but be cautious, over doing the sugar-salt balance is a true juggling act for any 'new' recipe. If you mess it up, please forgive yourself and try again till you're just good at it 😁 and that recipe is conquered! May I hear an Amen?? Lol

 

Butter vs Margarine

My next hack is using Stork baking margarine instead of butter. Stork baking margarine makes a lot of sense if unsalted butter is expensive where you live. It works like butter and has never disappointed me in this area of butter-alternative. Proper margarine will make your cakes and other bakies more dense and maybe tougher. Proper margarines do have their place in the Circle of Baking Life, but if you're a light and fluffy cake lover like me, do butter or Stork baking margarine.

 

Vanilla Essence vs Mixed Spices

This hack came about because I did not have vanilla essence the first time I tried this recipe a few weeks ago... but I had Robertsons Mixed Spices!! This Google link may tell you more about my all time favourite Robertsons bottle. It's good for ehhhverything... soup, stews, and cakes!! It's magic to my meals. A few shakes does wonders, bringing out flavour that was hidden in food. I digress... back to this hack for this recipe. So instead of vanilla essence, I added 4 shakes of Robertsons mixed spices through the perforated opening. Like essence, you just need a little to do an great job. Too much would overwhelm the other flavours in the cake.

 

Hand mixers vs Folding in

Another hack is, I used a hand mixer, which is shown in the second photo in this post. Quick, efficient and fun if you like seeing how it twirls patterns out of each stage of the batter. BUT BUT BUT do not use the hand mixer at the last stage when adding the flour. Please don't. It will toughen the cake and make it a cookie. Don't believe me? See what's below, same recipe, but I got delicious cookies:

Don't be deceived by its nice look. This pretty flop was intended to have texture that looked like this:



However, it missed that look, and had a rich cookie look instead. Like short cake, just softer... still incredibly delicious, but a true disappointment if you wanted the fluffy cup cake texture.

 

SO INSTEAD, fold the flour and other remaining ingredients at this stage into the cake mix. This means stir in the flour, a little at a time, in one direction with your spoon/palette moving in a circular fashion from the bottom of the mixing bowl to the top of the batter. If you do not move it in one direction till all the flour is folded in, you'll get lumps that would need more stirring to get rid of. The point of folding in is to reduce the stirring as much as possible, and maintain a light fluffy texture when cooked. So avoid lumps, and enjoy folding in... it's a sure sign that the end is near 😉😌😋😎

 

Make it more interesting...

My last-but-one hack with this recipe was to make different cakes from the same batter. Just throw in something as you fill your making moulds!! At the first Bake off, we used Milo for the large rectangular cake and dropped some raisins in the heart shaped mould... For my tasty cake-turned-cookie disaster, I used Kellog's Fruit Granola and Pick n Pay Bran Flakes... just throw something in... you'll never know what will become of it. And remember... if it 'fails', please forgive yourself and try again another day. You won't regret you did....

 

#HEALTH HACK - Don't consume too many calories in the process...

There's the temptation to taste every thing at every single stage because it makes us feel good or invokes childhood memories, if your parent or guardian baked. My hack? Have a full glass of water with you at all times. Each time you feel like tasting the batter, or anything else, just take a sip and remember to top it up. It's great for rehydration from all the heat by the oven and keeps your mouth shut from all those sweet licks and dips. Plus topping it up helps you not to forget to refill an empty glass... lol... A glass of water IS your friend whilst baking. Coming from one who easily puts on weight, trust me, it's so worth it.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading this lengthy post... You've done a yeoman's job reading it all. I'm now tired from writing it all too at this point and can celebrate its finals words.... and get myself some breakfast 😄 I'm hungry... 😜

 

I hope you enjoyed my hacks and they are useful to your baking experience... and make you feel like a baking celebrity when you get all those compliments!!!

 

 

For the day you bake again (or for the first time), we, at Ndudu tales, wish you a Happy Baking Experience!

 

 

 

If you enjoyed reading this post at Ndudu tales or simply learnt something new, please share it with others. And do let us know what you think in the comments below. Thank you.