Baking tips by Alison Huw

Alison Huw is one of Wales’ leading food stylists.

Her entire thirty-five-year career has centred around food. Alison has worked in the private and public sectors, in industry, education and public health. She is also an experienced broadcaster, and enjoys sharing her passion for food and cooking, contributing regularly on both TV and Radio. As well as food styling for Stellar, through her consultancy business Alison has worked with some of the UK’s leading chefs and restaurants. Outside work she cooks for her family and loves food travel.

@alisonhuw

1. Use my fool-proof method for a basic sponge recipe. Perfect for cupcakes or sandwich cakes. Weigh the eggs together in their shells and then add the equivalent of sugar, butter and self-raising flour e.g if 3 eggs weigh 195g, cream together 195g caster sugar and 195g soft butter. Beat in the 3 eggs and then fold in 195g self-raising flour. Divide the batter between cake cases or tins accordingly. Adjust the number of eggs according to the number of cakes or tin sizes required.
2. For the lightest and airiest cakes make sure the eggs and butter are at room temperature before baking. Cold eggs can result in a lumpy cake mix and a stodgy cake.
3. Always preheat the oven to the correct temperature before baking and resist the temptation of opening the oven door to check the cake before the end of the cooking time.

1. Make sure your cakes are completely cold before decorating.
2. Don’t overfill piping bags with buttercream or icing when decorating. The bag becomes difficult to handle.
3. Practise your design on a small plate before you pipe the cakes to avoid mistakes.
4. If time is limited, whipped cream or mascarpone is a great alternative to a classic buttercream and can be flavoured with sugar and vanilla, chocolate or coffee.

1. When you first start to bake sourdough it can be challenging but stick with it and practise until you get the hang of it. It took me many months!

2. Ask an experienced local sourdough baker for some established starter if you’re struggling to begin.

3. Once you’ve mastered the basic technique keep everything consistent to begin with. Use the same brand of flour, the same temperature of water and the same area of your kitchen to ferment the starter.

4. Take a picture of each loaf as a record and make a note of what you did when you baked a particularly successful loaf. It all helps and is all part of the fun of learning to make sourdough!

Adding unusual spices to an otherwise familiar recipe can surprise and elevate your bakes to another level.

1. Cardamom in cake mixtures. We’re familiar with cinnamon and cloves in baking but cardamom adds a sweet, spicy and almost citrusy note to bakes.
2. Caraway seeds in bread dough. Add to your sourdough for a subtle but distinctive earthy flavour.
3. Star anise in sweet desserts. Elevate your apple and blackberry crumble by adding star anise with its subtle liquorice tones.
4. Edible flowers in drinks or decoration. Borage sometimes known as Starflowers are small purple edible flowers that add an elegance to gin and tonic and are stunning as a floral cake decoration. They have a pleasant mild herbal cucumber flavour. 

Keep a stock of ready rolled puff pastry in the freezer to make quick desserts and canapes. For super quick canapes, spread defrosted pastry sheets with ready- made pesto or nduja, roll up, slice thinly and bake until crisp. Make a quick yet impressive dessert by topping caramelised dessert apples with a circle of puff pastry for a classic tarte tatin.

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