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Improve Your Cake Making Skills with a Baking Class
By Wendy CroixLots of us like cakes and pastries but don't make them ourselves because our attempts never seem to fare well. If your cakes fall flat in the middle, a baking class would help you to learn all the skills you need to make and decorate delicious cakes.
A freshly baked cake is a delicious treat any day of the week, but for special occasions it can often become the centerpiece of a celebration or family gathering. If you want to learn the secrets of baking and decorating special occasion or everyday cakes, a short baking class should be able to teach you all you need to know.
What Does a Cake Baking Class Involve?
If you want to learn how to make cakes for yourself, family and friends, you don't need to take a baking class designed for professionals; at this level you should be able to learn how to make a simple cake in a few hours.
Many baking classes aimed at the amateur cook are held during the evenings and may last for a couple of hours, one night a week for a month or so. Typically, a class like this will include:
- Cake batter. Learning the different ways to make it (e.g. the creaming method, the rubbing-in method, the whisking method) and the type of cakes you can produce with each.
- Baking. What oven temperatures to use, how to determine when a cake is cooked and how to cool it properly.
- Flavorings, fillings and frostings. How to make and use them.
- Decorating. All the basics of icing, including piping (stars, swirls, writing) and making and applying ornamental figures such as flowers.
If you want to learn basic cake making skills, try a baking class at a cooking school and surprise your family and friends with homemade goodies.
About the AuthorWendy Croix, Ph.D. is a freelance writer, cultural critic and university professor. In her twenty years as a professional educator, Wendy has guided hundreds of students toward the careers of their dreams.
