Love tucking into baked goods but aren’t sure where to begin? Then worry not; our handy guide covers all the essential need-to-knows to help you rise to stardom in true scrumptious style. From muffins to traybakes, loaves to cakes, The Range has all your culinary creations covered.
Behind every successful baker lies a selection of practical tools and kitchen essentials. Whether you’re baking at home, at university, or with little ones, here are our essentials for breaking out the baked goods.
From mixers to kitchen scales, cookie cutters to spatula’s, having the right tool to hand can make a real difference. Designed to help separate, break up, and even aerate the clumps in your dry ingredients, sieves are a super-handy tool guaranteed to land a firm front-row seat in any kitchen. With rolling pins that are perfect for spreading the dough, piping bags to help distribute icing, and even measuring jugs to help you measure the ideal quantity, baking with The Range has never been easier.
Looking to try your hand at cake decorating? Then, ensuring you’re equipped with the perfect cutting set, icing smoother, and a decoration mat will help you easily create a true masterpiece.
With all your must-have tools under your belt, the next step is to ensure you’ve got all the necessary cookware. Ensuring you’ve got the right sized mixing bowl, baking tray, or cake tin is guaranteed to save you a lot of hassle as well as the risk against imperfect batches, whilst utilising adequate cupcake and muffin cases are sure to help your baked goods reign supreme.
There’s nothing worse than burning yourself ahead of tucking into a freshly baked batch of culinary creations, so always ensure you’ve got the correct gear to hand. No matter whether it’s an apron and some oven gloves or a handy tea towel, these practical and highly versatile lifesavers are sure to help keep both you and your kitchen, clean and protected from the elements (rogue flour included).
Now that you’re all prepped for the baking battle, here are a few Top Tips to remember when it comes to churning out your scrumptious servings:
Always weigh your ingredients carefully
Use the correct tin for the job
Always preheat the oven and don’t overeagerly open the door
Ensure your surface is well-floured
When adding flour, butter and eggs together, make sure you fold them together carefully rather than whisking or beating them
About 20 minutes before you start baking, bring all your ingredients out of the fridge so they're easier to whisk
If you're out of self-raising flour, you can use plain flour and extra baking powder as a last-minute replacement
Aerate - get air into a batter or mixture
Batter - A mix of liquid and dry ingredients, with a consistency you can pour
Knead - Folding dough over and pushing it down on a hard, floured surface
Score - To cut lines into a dough or mixture
Soft peak - Something, usually egg whites or cream, when beaten, have peaks that flop over
Stiff peaks - peaks stand up straight
Now you're ready to try your hand at baking! Make sure you follow the recipe when getting started and once you're more comfortable, you can try some experimenting. Our Best Banana Bread Recipe is a great place to start.
