My neighborhood Ralph is giving away more eggs–another carton of 18 large eggs–so that gives me another shot of cultivating the inner-baker in me.
I baked a pound cake. With some blueberries. It was yum. (I finally made good use of the bundt pan that I bought months ago.) After a few failed attempts–which I chose not to document here–I think I am slowly (but surely) getting the hang of baking, and I thought the following tips might help if you are a budding baker…
RASA MALAYSIA NEWBIE-BAKER QUICK GUIDE
- Follow the recipe. Just follow the darn recipe and no questions asked. Step-by-step. Cup-by-cup. Spoon-by-spoon. If the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, don’t use 1.5 cup. More butter doesn’t mean that your baking will turn out more buttery (you are not cooking butter prawns!). If anything, it might render your cake too buttery it won’t rise properly. Trust me, I’d been through this mistake.
- Don’t try to be creative. Don’t even attempt to be creative when you are learning to bake. If the recipe calls for milk, use milk even though cream tastes like a thicker milk. Again, follow the recipe…there is a reason why milk is used in baking and cream is used for making sauces. And don’t even think that you can use condensed milk to replace milk–condense milk + water don’t equal milk! Yeah, I’d been through that mishap, too.
- Don’t let your baked goods sit in the oven. Oven is a very hot thing–an average of 350 degrees Fahrenheit or more–so hot that it takes a while to cool down. So, if you are smart, you won’t let your muffins or cake or cookies or pies or tarts sit in the oven heat after baking is done. Take them out, let them cool off OUTSIDE the oven on a cooling rack, not inside the oven. You are warned, so don’t blame me when your muffins or cake or cookies or pies or tarts look all BLACK and burnt even though they were perfect when you turned off your oven like 4 hours ago!
- Last but not least, there is no guestimate in baking. Baking is not cooking, you can’t guestimate the ingredients. There is no “to taste” unless you really want to taste raw batter. Stock up on kitchen scales, measuring cups, measuring spoons, and all the baking essentials. Online conversion websites and your calculator won’t help much when you are trying to convert a pound to pints or cups or spoons. Plus, baking is already tough enough, you don’t want Math to get into the way, do you?
That’s all and good baking. :)
Other baking recipes on Rasa Malaysia:
Adapted from About.com Southern US Cuisine
Ingredients:
1 cup butter (softened)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
Method:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Sift 2 cups flour, salt and baking powder together. Add sifted ingredients to creamed mixture and beat.
Dredge berries in remaining flour. Gently fold floured berries into the batter. Grease and dust the bundt pan (or tube pan) with flour; pour batter into it. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until it’s done.
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
very good tips! this poundcake looks delicious especially with the fresh berries.
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Congratulations! You should be very proud of yourself. It’s always an achievement when you’ve successfully baked a cake. And it’s always nice to have the wonderful smell fill your home. Photo looks fantastic.
Another baking tip:
Always use the right pan (correct size as the recipe state).
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boy oh boy… it’s so beautiful!!!!! oh my god… so lovely and looks so delicious! thanks for da recipe, will give it a try ;)
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Too beautiful to eat…
-Christine
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oh what a wonderful idea! looks delicious!
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The great thing is, when you’ve baked for a while already, you can break some rules (change the pan to your liking, add nuts and berries and such), and sometimes even tell when a recipe is dead wrong and predict if one will give a bad result before you’ve wasted any ingredients!
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The pound cake looks wonderful!!! Absolutely delicious I must say!!!
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Pound cake looks delicious.
I love blueberries
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pfff it’s not fun, you are the best with malaysian and asian food but when you cook normal food you are also….the best…just amazing pictures for this delicious recipe! Un immense bravo! cheers
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I’m guessing your wonderful tips for newbie bakers come from experience? Well, we have all done all of those things! For some reason I started collecting Bundt pans a few years ago, so I’m always looking for new things to bake in them. Thanks!
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Yay! Your on your way to becoming a baker-extraordinnaire! It looks yummy! I want it right now with my coffee!
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your baking pointers crack me up! i think your cake came out beautifully. for me, baking is like chem lab. i don’t know if that helps or makes people run in the other direction ;) great job!
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That’s so funny that you posted this today. I just posted my favorite banana bread recipe from southern food about - failed attempts aside, this cake looks simply delicious.
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Your baking tips had me laughing, nodding and agreeing.
The cake would go well with one of those teas from my blog don’t you think? :D
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Yumz…you’re planning to conquer all categories of cooking??? ;o)
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bee, i don’t believe this. you tried to add extra butter to a recipe? and cream instead of milk? lol. i’m always trying to do the opposite. your cake looks gorgeous.
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There is a lot of science involved in baking but once you get the hang of it it becomes art. Some essential cookbooks we have in our household: “The Bread Bible” and “The Cake Bible” by Ruth Berenbaum, and “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.
What I wanna know is, how did you keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the pan?
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You’re so spot on with the baking tips, unfortunately I had to learn them through the hard way. Wish I could stop trying to be creative with something I haven’t quite mastered yet haha. Awesome looking cake you got there :)
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Your pound cake looks pretty good. I have been having some problems with my baking as well. I guess I just need to practice more.
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really nice cake……baking is just like doing anything…practise make perfect…
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well, practice makes perfect. I believe after a few more attempts, fans of Rasa Malaysia should be able to see more posts on baked goods from u! ;-) Btw, great pic!
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Hey RM! Who is this Ralph guy that keeps giving you eggs? I want to know him! seems I’m always running out!
Great looking cake, RM!
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I’m also beginning my quest for the perfect baked good - and it’s nice to know even accomplished chefs have some trouble with this new art form. But the cake looks delicious - and I’ll remember your tips!
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Definitely some good tips! Your pound cake looks perfect, I love that you baked it in a bundt pan. :)
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All -
Thanks for your kind comments, sorry I haven’t been able to respond to my comments lately. Anyway, thanks!
Anonymous - thanks for the right pan suggestion/advice.
Nate 2.0 - I followed the recipe and dredge the blue berried in one cup of flour and then fold them into the batter. It works!
Oh for the love of food - LOL. Ralph is not a guy, it’s a chain food store here in California, but the ones in my neighborhood is having the free eggs promo. You really crack me up thinking that Ralph is a guy! LOL!!!
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This looks absolutely delicious! I love my pound cake with blueberries, so this is a good one for me to try out!
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Im not really a pound cake fan but your blueberry pound cake looks so moist. I might even try your blueberry pound cake recipe. ;)
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So, the 1 cup of flour is used only to dredge the bleberries and can be discarded, right?
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im baking the cake right nOw and it smells delicious! I plan on using a lemon glaze to top off this wOnderful recipe. I lOve this site! i bOOkmarked it! amazing!
amyiah
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