The thing about baking Cakes….
Most my trainees come to me saying “I can’t bake!” “It never works!” “I don’t have it in me to bake cakes!”… Let me assure you, as I did them, you can bake perfect cakes every time! Why surrender to such limiting beliefs? We do manifest all that we believe ourselves to be. If you believe that you cannot bake, or you are some one who when bakes everything goes wrong, then guess what, you will do just that! Yes, because if we are ever to do anything, or accomplish anything we have to believe that we can first, the action follow, then the achievement. If we stop at the first though, with “I can’t” then the outcome is certainly “I won’t”. If we simply shift to “I can” then, I do…
Once the initial openness is there,
then you are on the right path. No wishful thinking/solely dreaming ever gets any job done. It is the first step, then we do the work. Learn, be curious, ask why! This really is how I learnt. Why did it not work? why did it work before and now not? why does it rise? why does it fall…. The more you know and understand the more likely you are not just to succeed (following a recipe most of the time leads to success), but to succeed everytime and then move ahead beyond that to actually being able to create that recipe instead of just following.
Now that you are here,
The thing to know about baking cakes is the ratio of liquid to dry ingredients. In order not to complicate things for you in a post, in short: The Secret To Baking Success is : Precise Measurements and following the recipe exactly. That is until you learn the basics of baking. For now (the first step), don’t improvise and change around thinking it will work. You can do that once you know and understand the ratios, but until then, you should simply follow the recipe to the dot! It will work.
About this cake
We all love a piece of cake. Some flavours are favourites, and we tend to somehow mostly go for our chosen favourite flavour. I usually go for chocolate cakes. However, on occasion, I like to play around with flavours. Instead of serving the same old cakes, why not go for Ramadan Flavours this Ramadan?
In an earlier post, I spoke a bit about what resembles Ramadan Flavours to me. Maybe your Ramadan Flavours are different, so if you do want to change around in this cake to incorporate what tastes like Ramadan to you, you can. You can change the spices I have used, in this case cardamom, and you can change the rosewater into any other liquid flavouring. Just make sure that you substitute the flavours in the same amount. 1 tsp cardamom = 1 tsp cinnamon for instance, not 3! You can also substitute the same amount of ground almonds for the pistachios if you like and make it an almond and cinnamon cake for instance.
With that said, I do recommend you try this cake out as it is, because the flavours are a marriage in heaven! It is so delicious, you will struggle to hold back from seconds!! 🙂
I like to serve cakes in individual portions, I find that they look elegant and take away from the hassle of cutting the cake when entertaining. I have put here the steps to change a large cake into individual portions. You can still serve this cake as a whole large cake, and it looks just as good.
TIP: Cakes have to be completely cooled before they are iced or frosted. Take that into consideration when planning your time.
Happy Baking 🙂