15 secrets to bake perfect cakes!

Replace the pinch of salt with sugar in your egg whites

We all took the habit to add a pinch of salt in our egg whites before whipping them. Yet, it is useless. The real trick to have perfect fluffy egg whites? Add sugar to them! Sugar stabilizes the whites and prevent them to become grainy, and break down. When you are baking a cake using whipped egg whites, add 1/3 of the sugar amount in the whites.

Take out half the sugar in the recipes

A lot of cake recipes uses way more sugar than they need, especially chocolate cake, where cocoa brings sweetness. Don't hesitate to reduce the sugar amount in your cakes, even half of it, and it won't change the taste that much.

Be patient before unmolding

The real twist when you bake a cake, it is when you unmold it. And sometimes, it can go terribly wrong: it breaks down! Not enough baking, bad recipe, a lot of factors can impact this cooking disaster. But what is frequently going on is that you didn't wait long enough. So, leave your cakes get really cold before unmolding them, and you'll be sure to have a perfect result!

Bake moist cakes with brown sugar

Brownies, gâteaux au chocolat, cookies, toutes ces recettes nous plaisent par leur texture moelleuse. Et bien saviez-vous qu’une partie vient de l’utilisation du sucre roux? Ainsi, n’hésitez pas à tester le sucre roux dans vos recettes de gâteaux pour un résultat encore plus moelleux!

Choose the right four

There are so many flours in the grocery stores that it can be tricky sometimes to know which one to buy. Use bread flour while baking a dough with yeast, it contains more gluten and helps the dough to raise. Use pastry or all-purpose for cakes, and if you want a lighter cake, use cake flour. We prefer not to use self-raising flour, to be able to adjust baking powder amount if we want. But that is up to you.

Pick the right butter

Here is why French pastries are so delicious: they have the greatest butter ever! That is why you'll never have a better croissant than in Paris. But you can choose your butter wisely: only the ones which contains at least 80% fat.

Clean your silicone molds well

As practical as they may be, silicone molds are a pain to clean! You should definitely not wipe them with a cloth, which will leave lots of fibers and other dust inside. Clean your mold gently, rinse it with water, then put it in a hot oven for 5 minutes to dry (it will even be sterilized!).

The essential pinch of salt

Almost all cake recipes include a pinch of salt in the ingredients. This has a role as a flavor enhancer: in fact, the salt will counterbalance the sugar, and thus enhance it. Just as we would not appreciate the good weather any less if it never rained, salt allows us to better appreciate sweet flavors.

Cold for Chantilly

Everyone loves whipped cream. And there is nothing better than homemade whipped cream. But during the summer, or even in winter, some people may be disappointed by a cream that never whips. First, choose a liquid cream with a minimum of 30% fat, then refrigerate it for several hours before whipping it. Do the same with your utensils and your bowl. The fresher all the elements are, the more likely the cream is to whip, because its fat will solidify in the cold and allow small air bubbles to slip between them. And if it is really too hot, place your bowl in a container filled with ice cubes. It is impossible to mess it up!

No water in chocolate

If you are making a chocolate dessert and want to liquefy it, do not add water! On the contrary, it will harden it and make it impossible to mix. The same goes for milk, which is mainly composed of water. Add a little sunflower oil to your chocolate, in addition to liquefying it, it will make it shine!

Control the temperature of your oven

If your cooking times never match those suggested in the recipes, it's because your oven is set incorrectly. Don't panic, no two ovens are the same. But in baking, the cooking temperature is essential, and it's best to respect it. So you can get an oven thermometer, sold at a very reasonable price by many merchants, which will allow you to know the real temperatures of your oven, and thus get closer to perfection!

How to make a crème anglaise

Who has never failed a crème anglaise? Very sensitive to heat, it tends to “curdle” as soon as it exceeds 185°F/85°C, and it quickly becomes complicated. A little trick to be sure to never fail it is to add a small level teaspoon of flour or cornstarch to your egg yolk + sugar mixture before adding the boiling milk. With this addition, your custard will never turn again!

Don't stir your caramel

By stirring the caramel while it is being prepared, you force the sugar to crystallize, and thus lengthen the cooking time, without guaranteeing the result. A perfect caramel is made without water and without stirring. Simply pour the sugar into a saucepan over medium heat, and shake it from time to time to distribute the heat as well as possible.

Follow the instructions

It cannot be said enough that baking is the art of precision. So, there is no room for improvisation, always follow the instructions and quantities to the letter. If necessary, do not hesitate to buy a kitchen thermometer that will allow you to perfect certain recipes where the temperatures to be respected are essential. Finally, if you want to change ingredients, first find out on the internet to see if others have done it and how it worked.

Put some love in your cakes

Successful cooking is cooking full of love. Baking is the fruit of passion, the passion for beauty, goodness, and pleasure. When you bake, think about the pleasure you give yourself, and that you will give to your loved ones with a good cake. It may seem silly, but it is a matter of involvement, and the latter is important in the success of any project. A cake made with love will always be better than a dessert that you don't want to make and made in a hurry. It is the most important ingredient of all!