Monthly Archives: April 2023

BEING ATTENTIVE TO THE PREPARATION STAGES WHEN BAKING CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOUR CAKE. FIND OUT HOW TO BREEZE THE PREPPING PROCESS WITH HINTS FROM THE HUMMINGBIRD BAKERY. Far from coming together in the final stages of a recipe, baking actually begins long before your cakes reach the oven. For airy sponges, chewy-to-the-bite cookies and perfect pastry, preparation is every bit as important as your baking techniques. Buy quality ingredients You might not realise it but a trip to the supermarket to gather your ingredients is as much a part of the baking process as weighing out the flour, sugar and eggs. Investing a little time in sourcing the best quality ingredients you can afford will go a long way towards producing beautiful baked goodies. Organise your work area Having a clutter-free space where you can mix, whisk, fold and roll to your heart’s content is essential. Bring out your bowls, mixers and equipment

SALTED OR UNSALTED, BUTTER OR MARGARINE? THINGS EVERY HOME BAKER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BAKING WITH BUTTER. Without this vital ingredient, cake as we know it would cease to be. Sponges would be dry and unpalatable and fluffy whipped frostings would be non-existent. We’re talking about butter! Used by the slab in baking, basted over a roasting chicken or stirred into creamy sauces, butter is one ingredient no cook should be without. Too many spoonfuls of the stuff, however, may expand your belt by a few notches. This is because most butter has around 80 per cent fat content, so it is best not to eat too many foods that are made using lots of it. But when it comes to taste, it’s butter that gives pastry its melt-in-the mouth flakiness, sauces and gravies their glossiness and sponge its moist buttery crumb. Butter is made when cream is churned; this action separates the solids from buttermilk, which is another useful baking ingredient in its own right,

MAKING CUPCAKES AHEAD OF TIME AND FREEZING YOUR CAKES IS A GREAT TIME SAVER FOR THE BUSY HOME BAKER. If you’ve ever wanted to be the baker who miraculously produces a perfect cake stand of baked treats at a moment’s notice, help is here! You may not be familiar with freezing when it comes to cakes and cupcakes, but it is easy to do and can save you plenty of preparation time. While we always bake fresh in our stores and haven’t tested the recipes in our cookbooks for freezing, lots of our home bakers have reported success when it comes to freezing their own baking so we thought we’d share some helpful tips with you here. Baking cupcakes for children’s parties, catering for big events and even supplying cakes for weddings can be made all the more easy with the aid of a freezer. Cakes can be whipped out of the freezer and defrosted in just a few hours and, providing they are well protected from the icy depths of the freezer drawer,

ICING AND DECORATING CUPCAKES WITH A TEMPTING SWIRL OF BUTTERCREAM FROSTING IS ONE BAKING SKILL WHERE PRACTICE DEFINITELY MAKES PERFECT! One question we are asked a lot by our home bakers is how to frost a cupcake with our signature swirl. The simple answer is: it’s easy when you know how! It takes the Hummingbird bakers lots and lots (and we mean lots) of cupcakes before they can get the frosting to look just right, so we thought we’d ask the baking experts at our Soho branch on Wardour Street just how they get their cupcakes looking so good…   How to frost cupcakes:   Timing Speed, confidence and a steady hand all help but don’t feel frustrated if it doesn’t come right straight away – it takes plenty of practice. While our fastest frosters can finish decorating a tray of twenty four cupcakes in just four minutes, it will take considerably longer

WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT FLOUR? IT’S THE BAKER’S BEST FRIEND AND WE’LL TELL YOU WHY IT’S SUCH AN IMPORTANT KITCHEN COMMODITY IN OUR QUICK GUIDE TO THIS BAKING BASIC.   Okay, we’ll admit it, flour is hardly the most newsworthy ingredient. But where would we be without it? Our fluffy little cupcakes would be flat, sloppy puddles and our beloved bakeries would be turning out omelettes! Quite simply, if cakes were a building, flour would be the bricks. So, let’s take a closer glance at where flour comes from and how it brings its magic to our mixing bowls…     What is flour? There are many varieties of flour, milled from all sorts of grains, but we use white wheat flour in our recipes. White flour (as opposed to wholemeal) contains around 75 per cent of the original wheat grain, but it has the bran and germ taken out.   How is

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BAKING POWDER AND BICARBONATE OF SODA: IT’S A QUESTION WORTH RAISING! Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda - forget these magic ingredients at your peril. They may only be required by the teaspoonful, but these small additions pack a mighty punch when it comes to your sponge. Miss out your raising agent and your cake will be dense, stodgy and lacking in lightness. The trouble with raising agents (also called leavening agents) is that they all look virtually the same but work in different ways. Use the wrong one in the wrong quantities and you may find yourself with overflowing cake batters or cupcakes that fall flat.   To get to grips the two main raising agents, here’s a brief guide to their properties:     Bicarbonate of soda (sometimes called baking soda) Known to those in white coats as ‘sodium bicarbonate’ and sometimes shortened down

STOP STUBBORN CAKES FROM STICKING WITH OUR SIMPLE GUIDE TO CAKE TIN PREPARATION. Preparing your tin properly takes a matter of moments and is one little job that’s worth the effort. Sticking sponges can make it harder to prise your cake from the tin without it breaking into pieces but thankfully there are a few things you can do in advance to smooth the way for easy removal. Greasing and dusting your tin with flour is essential if you’re baking something with a large surface area that's liable to stick. Use a clean piece of kitchen towel with a little butter on it to lightly grease around the inside of the tin. This will create an extra layer of oil which when heated by the oven will prevent the cake mixture from sticking to the surface of the tin. Lining the base of your tin with baking paper is particularly helpful if the cake has a wide base and shallow sides, such as a layer cake. Applying a thin layer of grease to the tin

HOME BAKERS OFTEN GET STUCK ON THIS GOOEY INGREDIENT, BUT BAKING WITH FLUFF IS A BLAST! JUST READ ON FOR HINTS AND TIPS… As a bakery dedicated to American-style goodies, we often use authentic ingredients that you'd be likely to find in an American supermarket. One such ingredient that The Hummingbird Bakers are often asked about is Marshmallow Fluff. Although Fluff is not all that familiar to most bakers, it is great for sandwiching Whoopie Pies, baking bars and topping cupcakes.   What is Marshmallow Fluff? Marshmallow Fluff is a brand of American marshmallow creme. It comes in a jar or a tub and there are several flavours of Fluff on the market. Imagine the gooey centre of a marshmallow made into a light, spreadable creme and you’re not far off. What can Marshmallow Fluff be used in? A jar of this stuff will add gooey, delicious marshmallow middles to your Whoopie Pies and is essential

ICING A SPONGE CAKE WITH BUTTERCREAM CAN FILL EVEN THE MOST ABLE OF BAKERS WITH DREAD, BUT IT’S REALLY A PIECE OF CAKE WITH A FEW TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS. As you can imagine, we frost a lot of cakes in The Hummingbird Bakery kitchens. Three key ingredients that make a good cake decorator are a steady hand, confidence and plenty of attempts at getting it right! The good news for any aspiring baker wishing to brush up on their baking and decorating techniques is that anyone can have a go.

ALL SORTS OF DELICIOUS INGREDIENTS MAKE THEIR WAY INTO AMERICAN BAKED GOODS. FROM PLUMP BLUEBERRIES TO TART BUTTERMILK, CRUNCHY PECANS TO SWEET PUMPKIN – THESE ARE THE AUTHENTIC INGREDIENTS THAT GIVE YOUR BAKES A TASTE OF THE US! Pies cooling on windowsills, stacks of gooey brownies, cookies that are chewy to the bite, light cupcakes with swirls of candy-coloured frostings – there’s a lot to love about American goodies. In both The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and our Cake Days book, we try wherever possible to use ingredients that combine to give an authentic taste of American baking. We regularly receive questions from our home bakers outside of America about some of these ingredients. Some wish to know more about the ingredient itself and how it is used, while others wonder if there are alternatives for harder to find items. We’ve compiled a list of some of the key ingredients that are often used in Stateside cupcakes, cakes, brownies,