Tea Cake

Hi friends! This is a simple butter cake that is good with tea or coffee. Easy to make, and very delicious.

Cook time: 50 minutes
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: Approx.40 minutes

Ingredients :

• 2 cups All-purpose flour
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 cup Butter (melted)
• 11/4 cup White sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1/4 cup Powdered sugar for dusting

Method:
Step1.
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Step 2.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
Step 3.
If the batter is too stiff, a tablespoon or two of milk can be added.
Step 4.
Grease and flour a round pan. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
Step 5.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F /175 degrees C Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Step 6.
Take out the pan from the oven. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack, then turn out onto a plate. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Here are a few things your less-than-perfect cake may be trying to tell you:

1. Your cake is too dense.
   A cake that is overly dense typically has too much liquid, too much sugar or too little leavening (not excess flour, as is commonly thought).

Solutions: Make sure you’re using wet measures for wet ingredients and dry measures for dry; check the freshness of your baking soda and powder, and check your oven temp to make sure it’s hot enough. A cake that bakes too slowly takes longer to set and may fall, causing a dense texture.

2. There are holes and tunnels in your cake.
   Cakes that have holes are problematic, especially if you plan to slice them horizontally. Holes in cakes are caused by improper mixing (generally over-mixing). You can always fill the holes with frosting to cover them up, but of course preventing them in the first place is the better plan.

Solutions: Consider what mixing method you’re using. If you have a recipe that calls for hand-mixing, yet you use a hand blender, you’ll need to mix much less. Standing mixers are incredibly efficient, but will mix your cakes very quickly. Make sure your ingredients (eggs, liquid and dairy) are as close to room temperature as possible to encourage proper mixing.

3. Your cake is dry.
   The culprits for dry cake are ingredients that absorb moisture, such as flour or other starches, cocoa or any milk solids. A second, and equally damaging culprit, is over-baking.

Solutions: Ensure that you’re measuring your flour properly. To do so, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level off evenly. Avoid dipping your measuring cup into the bag as this presses the flour into your cup and you’ll end up with too much flour. Measure cocoa powder the same way. To avoid over baking, there are three indicators that you should look for to determine if your cake is done: The cake should be slightly pulling away from the side of the pan, a cake tester inserted into the deepest part of the cake comes out clean, and the cake should spring back when gently pressed.

4. Your cake is tough.
   Mixing is a tricky thing when it comes to cakes. You need to find the perfect speed, temperature and duration to form perfectly-sized little air cells to make the ideal texture. Toughness in cakes is caused by over-mixing, or the wrong type of flour.

Solutions: Mix your cake according to the recipe — there is a function to the order in which ingredients are added to create the right texture. As soon as you begin mixing flour with a liquid and a fat, gluten is developed. Gluten is not desirable in cakes, so mix thoroughly but as little as possible. Make sure you’re using the correct flour. If your recipe calls for a cake or pastry flour then an all-purpose flour or bread flour will be too hard, creating a tough crumb.

5. The cake broke when turned out of pan.
   A cake has gone through a lot over the last 30 minutes, not to mention turning from a liquid to a solid! It needs a minute or two to gain its composure once removed from the oven.

Solutions: Line the bottoms of your pan with parchment paper. Cakes should rest in their pans on a rack for 15 minutes after coming out of the oven. By lining the bottom of the pan you give yourself some added insurance that the cake will slide out after cooling. (Running a sharp knife between the inside of the pan and the cake is a good idea, too.)

6. The icing is full of crumbs.
   Crumbs are the cake-decorator’s nemesis! They’re inevitable if you build a layer cake and have to split the layers, but there is a fix to minimize these irritating little morsels.

Solution: Do a ‘crumb coat’ when frosting your cake. Whether you’re making the simplest of cakes or the most extravagant of gateaus, put a very thin layer of icing on the cake for starters. This layer glues down the crumbs. Chill the cake until that crumb coat is firm, then continue icing your cake. There shouldn’t be a crumb in sight.

To sum it all up, here are my best cake-making practices:

1. Always grease the pan and line with parchment.
   2.Allow the oven to fully preheat before putting your cake in.
   3. Bake in the center of the oven unless otherwise specified.
   4. Bake in the size of pan specified, otherwise uneven baking will mean an uneven cake.
   5. Don’t try to double a recipe — cake recipes are more complex than that. Source out a recipe for a larger volume instead.
   6. Use fresh ingredients. Old ingredients taste bad, and old leaveners simply don’t work.
   7. With the exception of spices, don’t substitute ingredients. Especially ones that have structural impact.

Now that you have all those rules…have fun and go bake a cake!

Ref. http://www.chatelaine.com/recipes/cakes-recipes/what-your-cake-is-trying-to-tell-you/

Nick’s kitchen medical Disclaimer:

• Nick’s kitchen is for Vegetarians. It sometimes provides education and support to individuals who want to become vegetarian, or move toward a more vegetarian diet.
• Nick’s kitchen provides some information on vegetarian and vegan diets to the best of their knowledge and abilities.
• Nick’s kitchen does not claim to be health care professional, nutritionist, nor does it claims to treat any illness through vegan or vegetarian diet.
• If you have a medical condition,Nick’s kitchen recommend that you consult your health care professionals before changing your diet.
• Any changes that you make to your diet, and the results of those changes, are your decision and your responsibility.