CREATING A CAKE RECIPE

"I think baking is very rewarding, and if you follow a good recipe, you will get success". - Mary Berry

Do you ever have a hard time finding the perfect cake or cupcake recipe? Maybe one recipe has too much salt, or another too much sugar. Or the cake texture isn't just right. Here is my method for creating my cake recipes.

Let’s use Red Velvet Cake as an example. I look online and find 4 red velvet recipes. I type each recipe into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and compare the ingredients. The last column of the spreadsheet is for my recipe. I compare the ingredients for each recipe, and add the “common denominator” amount to my recipe. If 3 of the 4 recipes use 1 cup of sugar, then my recipe, will use one cup of sugar. If 2 recipes say use milk and the other 1 says use buttermilk, I will add milk to my recipe. You get the idea. I may add in some other ingredients that will work well with the recipe, or add any extra ingredients that may be listed in the recipes.

Once the comparison has been completed, I end up with my starter recipe in the last column. I will do a trial run of the recipe to see how it turns out, and adjust as needed until I get it right. The recipe is then saved into a Microsoft Word document, and added to my cake recipe cookbook.

I am always looking to improve my recipes, so there are always little notes written on my printed recipes, until I decide to reprint them. I add a photo of the dessert to the recipe just in case someone else has to bake it. That way they will know what the final version of the dessert should look like.

And that’s it!

How do you create your cake recipes?