Where to begin...

Just a quick post from me today, I have to come back with my AFL cupcakes I made for the final and the recipes I promised. Anyway I had a freind ask what she needs to do to get started to make cup/cakes so I thought I would post my reply for everyone to read.

Have a good rest of the weekend!!

That's great to hear you want to give baking a go, I really don't think enough women (or men!) our age can do it anymore which is sad. I remember cooking with my mum and it's something I want my kids to remember doing with me!

Anyway you definitely do not need a mixmaster! Just a handheld electric beater will be fine. A few basics I would suggest getting are some pyrex mixing bowls, spatula, measuring cups and jug, measuring spoons, scales, sieve, cucpake tray (just watch which size you buy, you can get mini, patty cake, muffin or texas muffin size. I generally use muffin size as thats what the papers fit in best) and maybe a 20cm or 22cm round cake tin a loaf tin. I wouldn't worry about having tins in every size, I usually buy specific tins as I need them so I can slowly build my collection but the standard 20cm round I would use the most and my loaf tin but I have no idea how big that is sorry! Personally I don't like the silicone stuff but you can give it a shot to see if you do!

Wollies and Coles have great baking stuff, papers and decorations to start experimenting with. There is a little shop in Newell St called Bakery and Catering Supplies that have just started selling some beautiful cupcake papers and they also stock piping bags and tins. You can also get some plastic disposible piping bags and tips to fiddle around with from Wollies.. I use a large washable piping bag you can get from kitchen shops, you can also get large piping tips for swirls there. The tip I use most often was ordered online, it is a wilton 1m tip used by a lot of cupcakers for the top swirl! Unfortunately I have to order most of the stuff I use to decorate online as there is nowhere around that stock what I need. Two good websites are www.completecakedec.com.au and www.cakedecoratingcentral.com

If you want to get into cupcakes I suggest you buy Crabapple Cupcake Book, the recipes are easy to follow and always taste good. The net is always a fantastic resource too. For sweets in general another good book is Womens Weekly Old Fashioned Favourites. I have just started a blog too which I am hoping to add recipes to siftandwhisk.blogspot.com
Some tips for cupcakes are

*Don't skimp on the beating of the butter, then slowly add sugar and beat more then add eggs one at a time and beat beat beat!

* Once flour is added take it slow, overbeating at this stage will make cupcakes tough. Alternate flour with liquid (eg. Milk, Juice, etc) and slowly incorporate.

* Have butter, egg and milk at room temperature. You can quickly zap butter in microwave to soften but DO NOT MELT, same with milk but don't boil and eggs can be placed in a bowl of warm water to bring up to temp.

*Don't have oven too hot, I usually set mine at 170" I find this works well for me, but every oven is different.

*Don't over fill the cupcake papers, I do mine around 1/2 full depending on how I plan to decorate them. Grab yourself and Iceream scoop to fill pans, it's alot less messy this way!

Other then that all I can suggest is just experimenting! You will learn little tricks as you go and soon you will be able to whip up a cake no worries :o) Trust me I have had many disasters but I just keep trying. If you have anymore questions ask away!

Goodluck

Kate