How To Get A Perfect Top Cake

All these years, I think I've only achieved an almost even flat top cake on 2 or 3 times. My cakes usually peaks and if I'm lucky enough, there would be no cracks.

I've been searching for the answers as to why the cake peaks and cracks, to which the answer are either:

• the oven temperature is too hot, causing the outside of the cake to bake and form a crust too quickly. As the mixture in the center of the cake continued to cook and rise, it burst up through the top of the cake,
• over mixing,
• too much flour,
• too little liquid, OR
• incorrect position of rack in oven.

And only recently I stumbled into this product by Wilton - Bake Even Strips. This strip is used to achieve a perfect level of cake.


Wilton's Bake Even Strips

How does this work?

Simply dampen the strips and wrap around the pan before baking. The moisture in the strips keeps the edges of the pan cooler for perfectly level cake.

Sadly to say, Wilton's products are not widely available in Malaysia. Even if it is, it's going to be very costly. Again, I googled for alternatives to the bake even strips and voila! I found this tip - using an old towel in replace of the Wilton strips will do just almost the same trick.

Now here comes the exciting part. I looked for an old hand towel which is long enough to wrap around my 8" pan. Then I cut it into half along the long edge, folded 3 times, wet it (squeeze out the excessive water), wrapped it around the pan and secure it with 2 pins. Pour in the batter and into the oven it went.



Outcome of the cake with the towel wrapped around the pan





An almost perfect flat top cake!


I did this with 2 pans, and while the first came out with an almost perfect flat top cake, the other still had a little peak. But at least this is a lot better than having to cut a lot of the cake to get a flat top cake for decorating purposes. And the best part, this tool is almost absolutely free!!

Give yourself a try today! Happy baking! :)

Vanilla Butter Cake

Ever since venturing into fondant decorating, I kept finding myself looking for excuses to bake and decorate a cake. But I can't be possibly decorating all the cakes which are meant for only normal consumption right? So I offered to bake a cake for my cousin's ROM. Not only she accepted but in return she commissioned for a cake for her friend's wedding too! I have to be frank, pressure is on. Even more so for my hubby! Hehe.. because he knows if I can't get a good recipe, then my mood swings faster than a F1 car!

The cake flavour that was requested was a vanilla cake. I googled for some recipes and decided to try out the recipe posted by Joy of Baking. Recipe was easy and I must say it's indeed yummy and moist even after 3 days! So yes, this recipe is going into the KEEP box!

Moist Vanilla Cake

Vanilla Cake
as seen and adapted from Joy of Baking

What You'll Need:

345 grams sifted all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

226 grams unsalted butter, room temperature

315 grams granulated white sugar (I have reduced the sugar by 35 grams)

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

240 ml room temperature milk

How To:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F / 180 C. Grease and line two 9-inch cake pans.

2. In a bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, (or with a hand mixer) beat the butter until soft and creamy (about 1-2 minutes).

4. Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes).

5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

6. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

7. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture (in three additions) and milk (in two additions), beginning and ending with the flour.

8. Evenly divide the batter between the two prepared pans, smoothing the tops with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula.

9. Bake 27 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in center.

10. Place the cakes on a wire rack to cool, in their pans, for about 10 minutes. Then invert the cakes onto a greased rack. Remove the parchment or wax paper and re-invert cakes so that tops are right side up. Cool completely before frosting.


Oh yeah, this is the outcome of the decorated cake. And I'm glad the newly weds and their guests loved it as much as I do! :)

So, happy baking!

He's now a pre-schooler

In a blink of an eye, K-boy is already 30 months old. We've been trying to get him a spot in a playschool near my work place since early this year but we had to be in the waiting list. It's not that the school is that famous till it has a long waiting list, but it's because we weren't sure if we wanted to send him to one at all when the schools were busy with their registration of new student intake.

Early this month we received a call saying that there's an empty spot, and that we could bring K-boy for a 2-day trial run, If everything goes well, he could just continue on with the program instead of waiting for the next month.

We started prepping him for playschool - telling him the activities he would be doing there and all, but being a first timer, what does he know about going to school? All he could give in response was just to nod his head whenever we asked him if he would like to go to school... I guess he must be thinking that going to school is like what he had seen in Barney.

All ready and set for school

On the first day of trial, he did get some 'culture shock' with so many kids, teachers and rules to follow. He was clinging to me most of the time, until it was time to play with the slides and all. He didn't even bother to look for me, and was enjoying himself and started mingling with other kids. Then the teacher suggested that I sneak away, which I did and ended up feeling awfully terrible for doing so. As I was driving away, I could imagine how he must have felt being abandoned by me. True enough, when I returned to pick him up, he cried like the floodgate went burst! Even more guilty! So, note to self and hubby, never ever do that again although he's going to cry when we leave.

2nd day was almost similar, but slightly better. And by the third day, he started to have adjusted himself more at the playschool. So we decided to go ahead and enroll him into the school. And by the end of the week, he only gave a fake-cry when we picked him up from school.

And now, after 3 weeks down the road, he's enjoying himself at school and becoming more independent and learning a lot of new vocabs too! Seeing him getting to learn something while having fun made me feel I've done the right decision in sending him to a playschool  even before the age of 3. :)