Baking is a hobby that anyone can get into. You don’t need all the time and patience in the world to make it work – it’s one of the few hobbies that you can get kids involved with and the reward is tasty baked food that you can enjoy there and then. Here are a few steps that you can take get into baking.
Get kitted out
There are a few vital pieces of kit that you may need to stock up on. These include scales, mixers, measuring beakers and baking paper depending on the type of food that you’re making. There are baking kits out there from companies like HobbyCraft with all the essentials included. Certain niches such as making icing may require you to look into other bits of kit such as piping bags and icing nozzles. You’ve then got the ingredients to consider – you may already have some vital ingredients such as milk, eggs and sugar, however it could be worth buying ingredients like flour, yeast and icing sugar. Baking equipment and ingredients aren’t expensive. It’s no wonder that bake sales are so profitable.
Master the basics
There are endless foods that you can learn to bake, but it’s worth starting simple to get into the swing of things. Try starting by making your own home-made bread or pizza base. From here consider sponge cakes, brownies, cupcakes and cookies. Crumbles can also be fun to learn, as well as various biscuits such as shortbread and gingerbread. You certainly don’t want to be starting with soufflés and baked Alaska.
Experiment
Once you’ve got the initial recipes down, you can quickly start to experiment. Any foods you have in your cupboard or fridge can be incorporated. Carrots can be used in a carrot cake whilst fruit can be made to use tarts. Even leftover foods such as last night’s curry can be incorporated into a tasty pie filling. You’ll eventually find yourself experimenting with shapes and consistencies, transforming you love of baking into an art.
Challenge yourself
Baking may be easy to pick up, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still continuously challenge yourself. There’s no limit as to what you can and can’t try as you’ll see from many expert cake designers. Sites like Sunny sport all kinds of complex recipes for those wanting to test their skills. Unlike many other hobbies, reaching the top of the game doesn’t require you to shell out lots of money on specialist equipment – the basic implements will do.
Get the family involved
One of the joys of baking is that you can get multiple people involved. It can encourage children to get into cooking by letting them get messy and giving them a tasty reward. You can even get inspiration from your children such as cookie shapes and cupcake toppings.
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