Recipes: How To Bake A Cake

A well-made cake is a crown to celebrate every occasion. There are different ways to make different cakes. Here are three recipes that you can make with available ingredients.

There are three common cakes that can be made using easily available ingredients. The three cakes that we shall examine here are

The apple cake
The vanilla pound cake and
The chocolate cake

1. How to make an apple cake

Image result for apple cake — Apple cake. Image from https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/gingered-apple-upside-down-cake/

Apple cake is a great cake to try if you like apples.

Ingredients

3/4 cup of flour/ 90 grams of wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
4 large apples
2 eggs
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
A pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of unsalted butter/ 120ml. It should be melted

2. Preheat the oven to 177 degrees Celsius and grease the floor of the pan using margarine or butter. This will prevent the cake from sticking. An 8-inch springform pan is recommended for this recipe.

3. Melt the butter and allow it to cool to room temperature before incorporating it with the other ingredients.

4. Stir the dry flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.

5. Peel the apples then remove their cores. Slice them into cubes of half an inch each or about 1.3 centimetres.

6. Cream the sugar and butter using your hand or a stand mixer. Add the eggs one by one mixing the batter. Incorporate vanilla into the batter after mixing.

7. Mix the two mixtures [4 and 6] by use of a hand or electric mixer. Stir until the batter is smooth and creamy.

8. Gently incorporate the apples into the batter. Overmixing will lead to a dense and stiff cake. You need to beware of overdoing it.

9. Pour the batter into the pan. Use a spoon or spatula to smooth the top of the batter so that it is even.

10. Bake the cake for about 50 minutes. Rotate the cake pan after 25 minutes to allow for equal distribution of heat. The cake is ready when the top is golden brown. A toothpick inserted into it should also come out clean.

2. Making a chocolate cake

Image result for chocolate cake — Image from https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_chocolate_cake_31070

To bake a chocolate cake, you will need the following ingredients.

3/4 cup or 170g of unsalted butter. It should be softened.
3/4 cup or 64g of unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup or 90g of flour
1/4 teaspoon or 1.4g of salt
1/2 teaspoon or 1.2g of baking powder
1 cup or 225g of granulated sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon or 4.9 ml of vanilla extract
1/2 cup or 120 ml of buttermilk or sour cream

2. Preheat the oven to 177 degrees Celcius. Use butter or margarine to grease the floor of the pan so that the cake does not stick when its bakes. After you have greased it, add a light layer of flour to its surface.

3. Place the eggs, butter, buttermilk vanilla extract, and sugar in a bowl and then use your hand or a stand mixer to mix them well.

4. Sift the flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking powder in a small bowl then stir them until they are well incorporated.

5. Add the dry mixture [3] slowly to the wet mixture [4]. Beat it well enough so that no white bits of the flour remain

6. Pour the batter into the pan.

7. Put the pan in the oven and cook for 30 minutes. You should rotate the pan 180 degrees halfway through the process to ensure that it cooks well. To check whether it is ready, insert a toothpick into the cake. If it is well baked the toothpick should come out clean.

8. Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes before handling it

3. Making a Vanilla pound cake

Vanilla pound cake is one of the easiest cakes to make.

Ingredients

1 cup of softened unsalted butter [225g]
1 cup of granulated sugar [225g]
A pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract [9.9 ml]
5 eggs, room temperature
2 cups of cake flour [240g]

2. Preheat the oven to 163 degrees Celcius and grease the floor of the pan using butter or shortening. Spread a light layer of flour into the pan until it’s evenly coated. Tap out the excess flour afterwards.

3. Place the butter and the sugar in a bowl and mix them until the mixture is light, fluffy and creamy.

4. Add the eggs one at a time and keep beating the mixture until the eggs are completely incorporated

5. Use a wooden spoon to stir the flour until it is just incorporated. Be careful not to overmix it. If you are using an electric mixer, make sure it is on low to avoid overmixing.

6. Pour the batter into the pan

7. Bake the cake for 1 hour 15 minutes [75] minutes. Turn the pan 180 degrees halfway through the baking process to ensure that it cooks evenly. To test if it has completely cooked, insert a toothpick into the cake. If it comes out clean, then, the cake has cooked and is ready.

The same process can be repeated or the ingredients doubled, tripled or quadrupled if you want to prepare more cakes for many people.

Check out this Twitter video on mistakes you could be making when baking a chocolate cake.