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BEGINNERS GUIDE TO CAKE BAKING. Essential Ingredients needed

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     As a beginner, here are some basic ingredients you will need to waltz your way through the process of cake baking.  

 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS FOR BAKING, includes and is not limited to

  • All-purpose Flour/ Self Raising Flour - APF can be used for a wide range of cake recipes and SRF for recipes that specifically require it. Choosing a good brand and sticking to it will help you achieve great result for your cakes. I personally love to use one of the best Nigerian brands (Golden Penny brand) and sometimes I go for an international brand (Mc Dougalls). 
  • Granulated sugar/Brown sugar : For my granulated sugar I stick to my Nigerian brand (Golden penny) its well refined and gives me the result I want. You can choose whatever brand works for you. Brown sugar is found in many recipes for fudge cakes or chocolate cakes and choosing a good brands is a huge factor.
  • Confectioner's sugar/Icing Sugar. This is one of the most important ingredients used when decorating your cake and making sure a good brand is used is essential. I personally love using a Nigerian brand called Bakers Choice its got a very smooth texture and doesn't clump together easily (you almost don't need to sieve it).
  • Baking Powder-  Choose a good brand that is reckoned with amongst cake bakers and stick to it. I personally like to use the double-acting baking powder.
  • Cocoa Powder/Chocolate -  Investing in a good brand can make a huge difference in the texture of the cake and taste. I like to use the Cadbury brand because of it richness.
  • Milk - When using milk in my recipe I like to use a Nigerian brand called PEAK milk, it is well known for its richness and quality taste. You can choose your own option that works best for you.
  • Butter/Margarine: this is readily available at many local store or cake store. I prefer to use brands that are sweet smelling and a nice texture feel in the mouth. So before I go for a brand of butter to use for my recipe I take a quick taste just to make sure its what I want. And so I stick with the ones measured and weighed in grams on a food scale. 
  • Oil- This depends on the recipe for the cake. Sunflower, Olive oil or vegetable oil is mostly used in recipes
  • Mixing colors: These are very essential as they come in handy in making fun color frosting on cake. I like to use gel food colors when icing  and use liquid when marbleizing a cake or making my favorite red velvet cake. You can also mix different primary colors to give you a different color. e.g Grey (Black + White), Navy blue (Royal blue + Pink). etc. 
  • Vanilla essence- Liquid vanilla essence is mostly used but some recipes require the extract which is gotten from soaking the pods.
  • Nuts: Recipes that are nut-based can contain walnuts, pistachios, peanuts, pecans or any other type depending on the recipe.
   Cake baking ingredients is not limited to all of these ingredients listed as there are other ingredients required in cake recipes.
Most recipes contain most of these ingredients as some recipes can have other ingredients that are also quite affordable. This list above is the main ingredients needed to make your first cake depending on the recipe you want to try out.
My recipe page is coming up very soon and you can check out simple easy-to-do recipes there.

* Disclaimer notice : The products brand mentioned above are not meant for advertisement. This is not in any kind a paid promotion for any product or shop. This is a list of products I use as per my preference which I have shared here to help others familiarize with the items. Baking ingredients are not limited to this list as some recipes call for other ingredients not listed here.

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