Kitchen essentials

Welcome back!
Today I would like to talk about some of the things that you will need to begin successfully baking. These items are good to have whether you are baking from scratch or using a mix.

1. Cake pans of various sizes. 8in, 9in.,etc... These can be metal, glass, or the disposable aluminum kind.
2. Pie plates
3. Measuring cups: both for solid and liquids. For those who may not know the difference the liquid measuring cups are usually glass and comes just as one item. The dry measuring cups are usually plastic but can be other materials and are almost always nested coming in various sizes ranging from 1/4 cup to 1cup.
4. Measuring spoons
5. Mixing spoons
6. Mixer: either hand or stand
7. Pastry blender. This is used for 'cuttin-in' shortening for items that need to be flaky such as biscuits and pie dough
8. Cutting board
9. Off-set spatula. This is used for icing cakes. It gives you better control and keeps your arms out of the mess.
10. Recipes! Usually if any special items are required a thorough read of the recipe will let you know. *Remember to always read the recipe through before starting! This will help prevent much frustration and last minute trips to the store.

As you can see it doesn't take much to being baking and most of these items are probably already in your kitchen waiting to be used. There are many other cool items that you may want to include as you delve further and further into the world of baking and some of these items will be included in the next blog. I look forward to your return. Until then...Eat Sweet!

Let's Get to Know Each Other

Welcome Fellow Bakers and Those who are simply curious.
Let me start by telling you just a few things about me:

1. I am a wife
2. I am a mother
3. I am a grandmother
4. I love to bake

Baking is something I love to do. I find it relaxing, although if you heard some of the comments I make while doing it you probably wouldn't think so.
Since my girls were small I always tried to make them personalized cakes for their birthdays. Some of these included a Sonic the Hedgehog cake and a Wizard of Oz cake. You could tell that they were obviously created by a novice but I tried and my girls loved them. Children, especially small ones, are so easy to please.
I enjoyed making their birthday cakes but it wasn't until recently that I really became interested in baking. I'm thinking it might have something to do with having an empty nest and the proliferation of ALL these cooking shows. It also helps that the internet is available for quick reference. For all of us who are not professional bakers the internet is a fountain of information but user beware! Not all of it is useful and sometimes you just need to trust your own judgement.
It doesn't take a lot to get started baking cakes or anything else. Just a few simple tools which are readily available at Walmart, Target, and Michaels. This is by no means a complete list of places to buy bakeware and cake decorating supplies. I have even bought from Amazon.
This blog will talk about my successes and failures with baked goods and there WILL be pictures of both. Hopefully more of the former than latter but that remains to be seen.
The next post will talk about some of the tools to get started (there aren't many) and others that are just cool to have. I look forward to my next post and hope you do as well. Until then...Eat Sweet!