How to grease and flour a tin

1. Using a piece of greaseproof paper, kitchen roll or indeed a butter wrapper rub a piece of butter or margarine around the inside of a cake tin ensuring that get into all the corners.
2. Add a teaspoon of flour to the tin and rotate the tin until all the greased parts now have a little layer of flour.

How to grease a tin

Using a piece of greaseproof paper, kitchen roll or indeed a butter wrapper rub a piece of butter or margarine around the inside of a cake tin ensuring that get into all the corners.

What does Simmer mean?

To simmer is to place a liquid in a pot and heat on a gentle heat until small bubbles appear on the edges between the liquid and the pot.

Bain Marie

Though a Bain Marie sounds very fancy, it is little more than a bowl sitting above a smaller bowl of hot water.  The water in the smaller bowl should not touch the bowl above.  Think of melting chocolate for rice krispie buns when you were a kid.

A Bain Marie has two functions:

1. To keep food warm (the stainless steel version favoured by carveries)
2. To apply heat gently without burning 

Why sieve or sift flour? What difference does it make?

A sieve is a fine wire mesh with a handle used in baking.  It is typically bowl shaped or conical.

Purposes

• Removing lumps from 
• powders used in baking e.g. flour cocoa
• other things that can be pushed through the sieve like raspberries to remove the seeds when making raspberry coulis
• Mixing ingredients together e.g. sifting baking powder and flour together for even distribution
• To add air to a mix e.g. a sponge cake.

Alternative:
In many cases you can use a whisk to add air, mix dry ingredients or remove lumps.

Care:
The main disadvantage is that its something else to wash up afterwards.  Wash it dry it and pop it in the oven for a few minutes to dry off the metal fully as your ovens cooling down after baking.  It will prolong the life of your sieve by not going rusty. (I know this goes without saying, but only put the sieve in the oven if it has no melt-able parts and please remember to use an oven glove to handle it).

Everything you've ever wanted to know about cupcakes but were afraid to ask

• Cupcakes are also known as fairy cakes, queen cakes or buns
• The muffins that I am referring to are American style muffins rather than the English style teacakes that are called English muffins
• If you ask me the main difference between cupcakes and muffins is size if the recipe says you'll get 12 cupcakes it means you will get 6 muffins.
• Use muffin or cupcake tins so that the cakes stay in shape
• You can line a cupcake tin with paper cases or squares of greaseproof or parchment paper
• If you don't line the cases with paper make sure that you grease the tins really well
• You can evenly measure out 3/4 filling of a muffin case using an ice-cream scoop (this speeds things up considerably)
• The range and scope of muffins/cupcakes are only limited by your imagination
• Cupcakes got a resurgence in popularity thanks to the cupcakes of New Yorks famed Magnolia Bakery as featured in Sex and the City
• You can use silicone ice cube trays in the oven to make mini cupcakes which are even smaller than mini muffins and are best covered completely in frosting or chocolate and treated like chocolate truffles
• To make raspberry buns, add a spoonful of the cake batter to the paper case followed by a tsp of raspberry jam, then followed by another spoonful of the cake batter and bake as usual
• To make butterfly buns; cut the top off a cup cake and cut the top down the middle to form two halves (these will be the wings). Put a layer of jam followed by a layer of butter icing on top of the cake. Place the two wings on the cake and dust with icing sugar
• Drunken ratinis (these were always a hit at our birthday parties when we were kids theres no alcohol in them the drunken refers to the way in which the the decorations inevitably slides: Take the bun and attach a marshmallow to the top with a little melted chocolate. Cut to holes in the top of the marshmallows and insert to chocolate buttons to form ears. Use strawberry shoelaces to make whiskers and use melted chocolate to draw the remaining rat features
• Coconut buns: In one saucer place a little jam and warm in the microwave. In the second saucer place a little desiccated coconut. Dip each bun in the jam and then in coconut.

Ribbon stage

When eggs and sugar have been whisked together enough that when you lift the whisk out that the whisk leaves a 'ribbon' of mixture on the surface.

Folding

Use a large metal spoon or a spatula and stir gently in figure of eight shape until its mixed fully. Folding allows you to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.

Cream butter and sugar

Mix butter and sugar together until it becomes paler and is the same consistency of over-whipped cream.

Preheat

Turn on the oven to the temperature on the recipe. When the oven has reached the desired temperature the light on the oven will turn off. Do not put something in the oven until it has heated up fully first.