I've recently been making my Christmas cake, and while researching recipes (I don't know why I did this - I already have a Christmas cake recipe!) I saw that people seem to struggle with some baking related paraphernalia, and lining cake tins in particular. Lining the tin is one of the first steps in many baking recipes, but it seems (from internet comments, and the fact that supermarkets sell pre-cut cake tin liners) that people struggle with this. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some of my favourite baking tips with you.
Tip 1 - Butter is your friend!
This is a good rule generally, but it comes in particularly useful when lining a cake tin. If you find that you have no baking paper to line your tin with then a good smear of butter followed by a dusting of flour can do the trick. Make sure you tap out any excess flour from your tin so that you don't get a dusty edge to your bake. You can also use caster sugar or cocoa powder for this job, depending on what you're baking.
Butter is also useful when lining a tin with baking paper. Make sure that you thoroughly butter all internal surfaces of your tin to make lining easy.
Tip 2 - Baking paper doesn't need to feel like origami
Cake tins tend to have a circular base, which seems to be a bit of a hang up for some home bakers, but don't worry, there's a simple was of making sure you get a perfectly lined tin every time!
I use loose-bottomed and spring-form tins, so if yours are the same, take the base out and cut a piece of baking parchment slightly bigger than your tin. Butter your cake tin base and stick on the square of parchment. Then simply cut around the base of the tin. This way you'll have a perfect circle every time without drawing around the base, or guessing its size.
As for the sides of the tin I tend to square off the roll of baking paper then measure the amount of paper needed by holding one edge of the paper in the tin, and unrolling the paper inside the tin until it is long enough to cover the sides. Mark how long this is (I tend to make a small cut or fold in the paper) then cut to length. I then fold the paper strip in half length-ways and cut down that fold. This gives you two lengths of paper that are the perfect size for your tin. Use one now and save the other for later by gently rolling it up and popping it inside the cardboard inner-tube of the baking parchment ready for next time. To fix the lining paper, butter the sides of your tin and (starting with the un-cut edge at the base of the tin) gently guide your paper around the inside of your tin, sticking it to the butter as you go. If there is any overlap at the end simply stick it together with a little more butter, or give it a trim with scissors.
I tend to keep my baking paper fairly high in the tin, so for the top edge (where there's no butter to keep everything in place) simple pop in a staple at the top to keep the corners together. This will stop them folding over during baking and digging into your part-baked cake. The resulting collar is also helpful if you want to put any foil over a cake that's browning too quickly as it will keep the foil off the top of your cake.
Tip 3 - But sometimes origami is useful!
For square tins used for bread or brownies you might not need to cut your paper at all (other than getting it off the roll). Cut off a piece of parchment that's long enough to line the base and sides of your tin in one go. Fold one side in toward the centre of your tin, then lay the paper on the base. Then you can line the paper up with the edge of the base and use this as a guide to fold the remaining edges.
To fold the corners decide which end you would like the corners to fall on and tuck the doubled-up paper at a 45 degree angle. This will neatly tuck into the corner. Repeat for the remaining corners. If you would like to add to the rigidity you can always add a staple to the corners above the level of your tin.
Tip 4 - For baking even and large cakes
For people like me with an old oven which has hot-spots and cold-spots getting an even rise and bake can be a challenge, but this little trick seems to help.
Get a piece of tin foil long enough to wrap around the outside of your cake tin, including a small overlap of 2cm or so. Then tear or cut a section of kitchen towel to just under the width of the foil and fold it (in half or thirds) so it is about on third of the height of your foil and place in the centre of the foil. Get a small jug of water and dampen the paper thoroughly. You want it to be wet, but not sat in a puddle of unabsorbed water. Once the paper is wet, fold over the top third of the foil, followed by the bottom third. Fold each side-edge of the foil a couple of times to seal the towel in the foil pouch. When you are ready to bake your cake, wrap the foil around the outside of you tin and secure with string or a couple of paper clips. The effect of the water-filled foil wrap will slow how quickly your tin heats up, giving a more even bake and helping to avoid a domed top to your cake.
You can also buy plastic and silicone cake wraps which do the same thing, but I like these homemade versions which can be reused and recycled once they've reached the end of their cake baking days. They also don't take up much space and they come out of the oven pre-dried, ready to fold away and reuse.
Do you have any banking tips and tricks? I'd love to hear them!
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