“Get your ingredients and make some magic” those were the first words that Australian pastry chef, Adriano Zumbo said in his show “Zumbo’s just desserts”, those were the first words that inspired me to make baking be my passion project. Baking has been a therapeutic way to cope with anxiety, depression, and stress, things that I have struggled with and continue to find a healthy solution to overcome it. Baking has been a way to show self expression, mindfulness, through baking we can learn the do’s and don’ts of common mistakes people do while baking, as well as the miss trials I had while baking, and what the ingredients in a recipe really mean, as well as the quality in freshness of ingredients.
This passion of mine began while watching …show more content…
Just like with any basic ingredient, butter will make any pastry contain air that will be held by fat as you mix the cake/cupcake, it will become lighter and more airy. White and brown sugars are equally as sweet but the molasses in brown sugar create a moisture texture. There are two types of sugar are used when baking, granulated sugar of powdered/confectioners sugar. They are essentially the same thing except that powdered sugar has been finely grounded and mixed with cornstarch to prevent caking. The two most confused ingredient and the most mistakenly used is baking powder and baking soda, both are used as leaveners (producing air bubbles) along with yeast. Baking powder and baking soda are both a natural raising agent used to mix with flour and other ingredients making sponge like holes in a cake. Baking soda is a base and when it is called for in a recipe it is usually paired with an acid, like lemon juice, buttermilk, brown sugar, vinegar, yogurt etc, and when you mix a base and an acid it makes a reaction, producing carbon dioxide and lets the baked goods rise. Baking powder contains baking soda, cornstarch and cream of tartar. Most baking powders are meant to be double acting, this means that the first leavening occurs when the baking powder gets wet (when you combine wet and dry ingredients), the second leavening occurs when the baking powder is heated. Baking powder contains an acid to neutralize the baking soda in it. Baking powder is mostly used with a recipe that does not call for an additional acidic ingredient, although some recipes with other acidic properties can contain baking powder like lemon cake, most of the time baking powder is used while making cookies or pastries very similar to cookies. Some recipes call for both baking soda and baking powder. The recipes that use both