Tips4You

Ingredients:

Invest in good chocolate, fruit fillings, nuts etc. You will taste the difference if you start with the best ingreedients.
Always use fresh eggs. Eggs separate best when cold, but egg whites whip up best at room temperature.
Butter gives the best flavor.A cake is a treat. Live a little!

Mixing:

• Prepare all the necessary ingredients.
• Before mixing the batter, prepare the pans, turn the oven on, and make sure the rack is in the center.
• Have all ingredients at room temperature for best results.
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy or as long as the recipe directs.
• Always sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices to avoid lumps.
• To speed up the softening of cold butter, slice and let stand for about 10 minutes.
• Toss nuts, raisins and fruits in the batter last. This will avoid color bleeding.
• Scrape sides and bottom of bowl frequently with a rubber spatula during mixing.
• Spread batter evenly in pans.

Baking:

• Turn on oven 10-15 minutes before you plan to use it to allow time for it to heat to baking temperature.
• Generously grease inside of pan with solid vegetable shortening. Use pastry brush to spread shortening evenly, making sure all inside surfaces are well covered. Dust with flour, tap out excess. If shiny spots remain, touch up with more shortening and flour, or use vegetable pan spray.
• Position pans as near to center of oven as possible. Pans should not touch sides of oven or each other.
• Test your cakes for doneness while they’re still in the oven. Because of differences in individual oven controls, be sure to test your cake for doneness according to package or recipe directions. Cake is done when the sides shrink slightly away from the pan and a cake tester or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Cool cake in pan 10 - 15 minutes before loosening the edge and turning it out onto a wired rack to cool.
• To remove cake easily from pan, place double thickness paper towel over wire rack. The towel prevents the wire bars from breaking the crust or leaving imprints on top of cake. A clean oven rack or refrigerator shelf can be used for larger layers. Place covered rack over top of cake. Invert cake and rack at least one hour before decorating. Then brush loose crumbs off cake.

Frosting:

• Chill the cake between the filling and the frosting. The cake will be much easier to work with.
• Apply a thin layer of frosting to the cake then refrigerate until it is set before applying the final, heavier layer of frosting. This will seal in the crumbs, ensuring a clean final appearance.