Baking is the process of cooking using prolonged dry heat. It is usually done in the oven but can also be done over heated stone or manually using heated sand. There are several methods or techniques through which baking can be done but the four major ones are going to be discussed.
i. Creaming: this method include mixing of butter or butter and sugar manually with a wooden spatula or with an electric mixer until it is light and fluffy depending on the recipe at hand. This technique is a great factor in determining the overall output.
ii. Whisking: this is used in beating eggs to be used in cake baking. This method is mostly used for recipes with eggs as the main ingredient. This usually come after creaming and also determines how fluffy the output will turn out.
iii. Folding-in: this technique involves adding dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stirring gently until they are well incorporated and smooth. In cake baking, over-mixing is avoided during this technique so that the output will not be a heavy and coarse-textured cake.
iv. Kneading: this is the techniques mostly use in making pastries. This involves folding the dough (dough is a mixture of flour, sugar, liquid and fat. it is usually thick, malleable and sometimes elastic) over itself until it is smooth and non sticky. When using this technique, the work surface to be used must be clean and sprinkled with flour to avoid the dough sticking to it. It is commonly used in making bread, meat pie, fondant icing, doughnut, chin chin, etc.
However, when baking either as a hobby baker or a professional, we sometimes run out of some ingredients due to miscalculations or having too much wastage. Most of us can relate to that. Imagine having an order of 200 cupcakes to be delivered in 2 hours time and just while you are about 85% done, you realized you are out of self-raising flour. Imagine the feeling that very moment. The anger, depression, frustration all running through you at the same time. And the only solution you have handy is to go to the nearest store to get it. But then you have some cupcakes in the oven which can’t be left unattended. What will you do?
Here are some basic baking substitutions to help relieve such period;
