Doing My Own (Beginner) Bake Off

[Anonymous]

Everyone submit a photo for week 1 and we will judge the one that looks the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone submit a photo for week 1 and we will judge the one that looks the best.

OP here. Doubt anyone else will do it, lol, but if someone can explain how to post a photo I’ll do so after I bake my cake today.

Also — has anyone ever stabilized whipped cream with cream cheese?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone submit a photo for week 1 and we will judge the one that looks the best.

OP here. Doubt anyone else will do it, lol, but if someone can explain how to post a photo I’ll do so after I bake my cake today.

Also — has anyone ever stabilized whipped cream with cream cheese?

I made the sponge cake in two 9 inch pans (so skinny layers). But I'll be filling with fresh fruit and cream so no super photo worthy.
I wouldn't stabilize whipped cream with cream cheese- will make it heavy and change the test. There are so many other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone submit a photo for week 1 and we will judge the one that looks the best.

OP here. Doubt anyone else will do it, lol, but if someone can explain how to post a photo I’ll do so after I bake my cake today.

Also — has anyone ever stabilized whipped cream with cream cheese?

I made the sponge cake in two 9 inch pans (so skinny layers). But I'll be filling with fresh fruit and cream so no super photo worthy.
I wouldn't stabilize whipped cream with cream cheese- will make it heavy and change the test. There are so many other options.

Awesome!!!

Mine is in the oven now, and I'm ... confused, lol. First off, when I added the eggs to the creamed butter/sugar, it ended up curdled. I added a TB or so of flour, which can help (according to the internet??), and it didn't help. So I just folded in the flour and then put it in the pans. That confused me too, it felt like I didn't have anywhere near enough batter. So skinny layers for me too, even with 8" pans. It smells good. I'll report back when done.

I'm putting raspberry jam and whipped cream in mine. How else to stabilize my whipped cream so the cake will last more than a few hours with the cream in it?

[Anonymous]

OP here.

Well - lessons learned. I'll repeat this cake next week to try and do a better job.

First issue: when I added the eggs to the creamed butter/sugar, it curdled. Pretty sure the eggs and the butter had not come to room temp, even thought they had been out for an hour. Then the batter was thicker than I thought it should be and the very thin layer of batter didn't spread out evenly towards the edges of the pan -- and I felt impatient, so didn't address that. So I got an uneven bake that was more done at the edges than in the center. It was also overbaked in general. I tried it at 18 mins and it didn't spring back, then at 20 it did and I took it out? I don't know -- overall it was a bit tough, almost like a really light corned bread? Also, it didn't rise anywhere near as much as the ones I've seen on the internet.

I used raspberry jam and no cream. I saw a video of Paul Hollywood making it, and he left out the cream so I did too. This was, admittedly, 90% laziness and frustration, and 10% influence of the Paul Hollywood video.

I'll try again next week, and then move on to week two of my challenge after that. Next time: make sure butter is soft enough and eggs are truly room temp, be much better with distributing the batter in the pan to get a more even bake, get an offset spatula -- I think I do need one, double check the temp in my oven (I'm in a new house and it might be running hot, I'm not sure). I think I'm also going to order a piping bag (is that what they are called?) and pipe in cream next time (and figure out how to stabilize it with gelatin or pudding).

See you next week for an update. It was still better than most store bought stuff, surprisingly.

Oh and I do have a pic, just don't know how to put it on here. Will try to figure that out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Well - lessons learned. I'll repeat this cake next week to try and do a better job.

First issue: when I added the eggs to the creamed butter/sugar, it curdled. Pretty sure the eggs and the butter had not come to room temp, even thought they had been out for an hour. Then the batter was thicker than I thought it should be and the very thin layer of batter didn't spread out evenly towards the edges of the pan -- and I felt impatient, so didn't address that. So I got an uneven bake that was more done at the edges than in the center. It was also overbaked in general. I tried it at 18 mins and it didn't spring back, then at 20 it did and I took it out? I don't know -- overall it was a bit tough, almost like a really light corned bread? Also, it didn't rise anywhere near as much as the ones I've seen on the internet.

I used raspberry jam and no cream. I saw a video of Paul Hollywood making it, and he left out the cream so I did too. This was, admittedly, 90% laziness and frustration, and 10% influence of the Paul Hollywood video.

I'll try again next week, and then move on to week two of my challenge after that. Next time: make sure butter is soft enough and eggs are truly room temp, be much better with distributing the batter in the pan to get a more even bake, get an offset spatula -- I think I do need one, double check the temp in my oven (I'm in a new house and it might be running hot, I'm not sure). I think I'm also going to order a piping bag (is that what they are called?) and pipe in cream next time (and figure out how to stabilize it with gelatin or pudding).

See you next week for an update. It was still better than most store bought stuff, surprisingly.

Oh and I do have a pic, just don't know how to put it on here. Will try to figure that out.

Sounds like a good start! Leave the butter and eggs out overnight. Make sure you cream the butter and sugar long enough. Like 5-10 minutes. After that only stir in other ingredients enough to incorporate. If you over mix it will definitely get tough or curdle. If it’s too thick just add another egg or a tb of milk. Also if you used baking soda or powder make sure it’s fresh, that can cause the thin cake you talked about. You can line pans with parchment or double pan them to prevent over browning the bottom. If using dark pans reduce oven temp by 25 degrees, If you fill the pans then bang them on the counter a few times then let them sit for about 15 minutes before putting them in the oven they’ll be more even. For the cream you can stabilize it with powdered sugar or cream of tartar or unflavored gelatin or a bit of vanilla pie filling jello mix or even some marshmallow fluff. Marshmallow fluff works surprisingly well and holds up for a couple days. I’m sure it still tastes great!

[Anonymous]

^ I meant leave the eggs out overnight- the butter should be slightly cold just below room temp. Room temp butter doesn’t cream up as well as slightly cold butter. If the butter doesn’t cream well or if you over cream then you end up with very dense cake.

[Anonymous]

Also be sure to just mix the flour in, don’t keep mixing after it’s incorporated. That can mess up the texture.

[Anonymous]

I just want to say that you are inspirational, OP. Love this thread!

[Anonymous]

It’s a very fun idea, and I can understand using ChatGPT to come up with what items to bake. But I would not use it for the recipes. It is not by any means fail-safe as you learned when baking this weekend’s item if it tells you to bake a certain thing, go look for a recipe from a legitimate and vetted source -Mary Berry, America’s test kitchen, Sally’s baking addiction, King Arthur Flour, Martha Stewart, etc. for the particular item and bake from that.

[Anonymous]

Fun!! Love that you’re doing this.

Tip: strain the raspberry jam if it has seeds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Well - lessons learned. I'll repeat this cake next week to try and do a better job.

First issue: when I added the eggs to the creamed butter/sugar, it curdled. Pretty sure the eggs and the butter had not come to room temp, even thought they had been out for an hour. Then the batter was thicker than I thought it should be and the very thin layer of batter didn't spread out evenly towards the edges of the pan -- and I felt impatient, so didn't address that. So I got an uneven bake that was more done at the edges than in the center. It was also overbaked in general. I tried it at 18 mins and it didn't spring back, then at 20 it did and I took it out? I don't know -- overall it was a bit tough, almost like a really light corned bread? Also, it didn't rise anywhere near as much as the ones I've seen on the internet.

I used raspberry jam and no cream. I saw a video of Paul Hollywood making it, and he left out the cream so I did too. This was, admittedly, 90% laziness and frustration, and 10% influence of the Paul Hollywood video.

I'll try again next week, and then move on to week two of my challenge after that. Next time: make sure butter is soft enough and eggs are truly room temp, be much better with distributing the batter in the pan to get a more even bake, get an offset spatula -- I think I do need one, double check the temp in my oven (I'm in a new house and it might be running hot, I'm not sure). I think I'm also going to order a piping bag (is that what they are called?) and pipe in cream next time (and figure out how to stabilize it with gelatin or pudding).

See you next week for an update. It was still better than most store bought stuff, surprisingly.

Oh and I do have a pic, just don't know how to put it on here. Will try to figure that out.

Sounds like a good start! Leave the butter and eggs out overnight. Make sure you cream the butter and sugar long enough. Like 5-10 minutes. After that only stir in other ingredients enough to incorporate. If you over mix it will definitely get tough or curdle. If it’s too thick just add another egg or a tb of milk. Also if you used baking soda or powder make sure it’s fresh, that can cause the thin cake you talked about. You can line pans with parchment or double pan them to prevent over browning the bottom. If using dark pans reduce oven temp by 25 degrees, If you fill the pans then bang them on the counter a few times then let them sit for about 15 minutes before putting them in the oven they’ll be more even. For the cream you can stabilize it with powdered sugar or cream of tartar or unflavored gelatin or a bit of vanilla pie filling jello mix or even some marshmallow fluff. Marshmallow fluff works surprisingly well and holds up for a couple days. I’m sure it still tastes great!

Thanks so much!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a very fun idea, and I can understand using ChatGPT to come up with what items to bake. But I would not use it for the recipes. It is not by any means fail-safe as you learned when baking this weekend’s item if it tells you to bake a certain thing, go look for a recipe from a legitimate and vetted source -Mary Berry, America’s test kitchen, Sally’s baking addiction, King Arthur Flour, Martha Stewart, etc. for the particular item and bake from that.

I used the recipe that OP posted and my sponge came out fine. Maybe a little overbaked. I melt the butter and use eggs straight from the fridge too! gasp! OP are you using a beater to beat your batter? That will get rid of what looks like curdling. It's just chunks of butter. Or straight up melt your butter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a very fun idea, and I can understand using ChatGPT to come up with what items to bake. But I would not use it for the recipes. It is not by any means fail-safe as you learned when baking this weekend’s item if it tells you to bake a certain thing, go look for a recipe from a legitimate and vetted source -Mary Berry, America’s test kitchen, Sally’s baking addiction, King Arthur Flour, Martha Stewart, etc. for the particular item and bake from that.

I used the recipe that OP posted and my sponge came out fine. Maybe a little overbaked. I melt the butter and use eggs straight from the fridge too! gasp! OP are you using a beater to beat your batter? That will get rid of what looks like curdling. It's just chunks of butter. Or straight up melt your butter.

OP here. Yeah, my butter was definitely too cold—I had trouble creaming it with the sugar. I’m using a hand mixer with the beaters on. Maybe I’ll try again this afternoon when I get home from work instead of waiting for this weekend.

[Anonymous]

I echo the “don’t use ChatGPT for the recipes themselves.” Especially for a beginner baker, you want the context that’s going to come from finding a recipe online or in a cookbook that’s written by a real knowledgeable and experienced human who will tell you why the specifics matter — why room temp items, creaming versus reverse creaming etc. You’ll learn more about baking using real, tested recipes with context.