Cake Making Tips

Homemade Cake Recipe Tips

When baking with butter:
Room-temperature butter in the cake batter is one of the biggest cake baking mistakes. In fact, butter must be below 68°F to trap air molecules and build structure. Otherwise, the fat will liquefy and the cake will be flat. To get “cool” butter: Cut the chilled butter into chunks and let it sit in a bowl for 5 minutes before beating.

When mixing cake batter:
You cannot overbeat the eggs, sugar and butter, but you can overbeat the flour. If you do, gluten will form and you will be making a quick bread instead of a layer cake. Beat the flour just until there are no visible signs of dry flour, but not until the batter is completely smooth.

Cake flour:
Cake flour is milled from soft wheat that has a lower gluten content and higher starch content than all-purpose flour. It helps to ensure a fluffy texture in cakes and pastries. A substitute for cake flour is to use all-purpose flour, but reduce the amount by 2 tablespoons per cup.

Chicken Stir Fry

1 C. chicken, cut into small chunks or thin strips (apx. 2 chicken breasts)
1 T. corn starch
1 T. soy sauce
2-3 t. oil
1/4 C. water
2 carrots, sliced thin*
2 stalks celery, sliced thin*
1 C. sauce (sweet and sour, spicy orange, teriyaki, etc.)
1 C. pineapple chunks or mandarin orange slices
*other veggies can be used, like onion slices, snow peas, broccoli florets, etc.

Coat chicken with corn starch and soy sauce. Heat oil in fry pan, then add chicken. Cook until outside of chicken is white. Add water and simmer covered 10 minutes, stirring twice. Add carrots and celery and fry for a couple of minutes while stirring. Then add the sauce and simmer covered for 10 more minutes. Add pineapple or oranges and heat through. Serve with cooked rice.