Cooking Tips

10 reasons why your cake failed

Ever throwing your cake away because no one eats it after you sweated the whole afternoon baking one? Here are top ten reasons why your cake failed. Reason 1 Obviously your cake does not taste right. Either it is too sweet, too dry, too hard or even tasteless. You may have also over-added certain ingredients into the batter and hence you are getting a bad result. Reason 2 You are likely impatient too. You mix and blend your batter hastily without making sure your batter has mixed evenly. Or your egg whites batter simple does not form stiff peaks when beating. Reason 3 You are also probably ill-prepared when baking cake. The problem is that you do not use the right tools during the baking process. Sometimes you may have problem using a hand whisker to beat the egg whites since you need to continuously beat them until fluffy as your hand gets tired easily. The best method is to use an electric beater or k-beater. Also you may want to get yourself a proper scale so that you can measure your ingredient"s weight accurately. It"s worth the investment for any baking afficionados. Reason 4 You never read the cake recipe properly. At least read through the recipe, then make sure you have all the necessary ingredients and baking tools in place. Without having the right ingredients or proper method based on the recipe that you are using, you are most likely failed. Reason 5 You likely over bake the cake. Always make sure the temperature of the oven is set correctly or according to the recommended temperature mentioned in the cake recipe. Typical temperature settings are 170C to 180C. Baking duration is normally not more than 40 minutes, so that notice of the time. Reason 6 Your cake does not look nice. Decoration is very important in making your cake nicer. This is the time where you let your creative juice free flowing. There are many ways of garnishing your cake as there are many decorative ingredients available such as chocolate chips, cookies or even merely using melted chocolate. Reason 7 Your loved ones probably do not like the type of cake that you are making. Some cake such as ginger cake may not necessarily be liked by some people. Understanding your key customers taste and requirements is important and helps you decide what type of cakes you need to bake. Reason 8 You use sub-standard ingredients. Always use fresh ingredients when you are baking. Make sure your ingredients have not reached its expiry date. The way you store your ingredients is also important. Make sure the ingredients are stored according to recommended instructions on the box label. Reason 9 You use wrong ingredients. Very good example is on the usage of flours. There is variety of flours out there, namely plain flour, self-raising flour, all-purpose flour, whole meal flour, sponge mix flour and many more. Using the wrong type of flour will definitely give a different result on your cake. Reason 10 Your baking skill is simply not up to the mark. Remember that baking skill is just like any other skill sets that require enthusiasm, patience and lots of pratice. There is a lot of resources or information floating around in Internet or books that help you improve your baking skill. Just don"t give up and good luck!


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What Does It Take To Make Chocolate ?
Chocolate has been around for many years. This was first used by the Native American civilizations as a refreshment but soon, this was developed into chocolate bars which we all eat today. But what does it take to make chocolate? Here are few things to give you the idea. First, chocolate is produced from cocoa beans that from the Theobroma cacao tree. In English, this term means food for the Gods because of its heavenly taste that the Aztec and Mayan civilizations have enjoyed for years. These degrees are harvested mainly from the Ghana and the Ivory Coast with some getting their supplies from other countries in South Africa and South America. The reason why chocolate is abundant is because the pods from these trees are produced all year long. There are three types that each have their own distinctive flavor namely Forastero, Criollo and Trinitario. Of the three, the most abundant among them is Forastero. Criollo on the other hand is very rare while Trinitario is a hybrid of the two. Harvesting the pods is usually done by hand with machetes. The farmers have to split open the pods to get to the cocoa beans. Afterwards, they scrape the pulp and beans from inside the pods and left to ferment in baskets from 2 to 8 days. Fermentation is important because without it, the beans inside would be too bitter to enjoy. After this process, the contents are spread in a single layer to dry usually under direct sunlight before this is packed and shipped to the buyer. Now you understand what farmers do, it is time to explain what the manufacturers do. Once the beans reach the factory, this is roasted and then transferred to a winnower. This machine removes the shell of the bean and leaves the nibs which is what is used to making chocolate. This is then grounded and turned into a rich thick paste now called chocolate liquor. The liquor then undergoes one more process to remove the cocoa butter which has an end product known as cocoa presscake or cocoa powder and here, manufacturers decide what kind of chocolate to make. If the presscake is of low quality, this will have to be mixed with other ingredients like vegetable fats, sugar and artificial flavoring. If what they have is of good quality, then this will added again to chocolate liquor and other ingredients like milk, sugar and vanilla before this is transferred to a conching machine. The conching is considered to be the last step in screening the chocolate in order to get its ultimate flavor and texture. The speed, temperature and length of this process has a lot to do with the taste of the chocolate. Also, this helps remove any acidic tones. This is then tempered into a large machine which pours the chocolate into the mold. Once it is frozen, the bars are then packed and ready to be shipped off to the consumer. Now that you know what it takes to make chocolate, you can begin to appreciate what you buy whenever you go to the grocery store and buy a few of these as a snack. Some of these are cheap while others are expensive and it all boils down to what kind of cocoa tree was used to make the finished product. http://make-chocolates.blogspot.com
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