Anyone who’s worked professional kitchen will tell you that there is a world of difference in the mindset of kitchen staff versus the bakery department. Although baker’s need to be artists to be creative, they also have to be scientists and very precise at that.  The Hummingbird Bakery is one of the most successful creative bakery chains in the UK -  see our review of their latest cookbook.

Here are some of their tips, combined with what we, at Wickedfood Cooking School, have learned over the years that we have been giving baking  classes, which we hope will help you to get the best results from your baking recipes:

• Follow the recipes exactly as written! Baking is a chemical reaction, and so any experimentation with the recipe amounts can potentially cause a recipe to fail.
• If you change an ingredient, a method, or an amount, no matter how small, then this will change the recipe from the way it was intended to turn out.
• Some baking methods in The Hummingbird Bakery cookbooks may seem unconventional to experienced bakers, but the recipes will work if followed exactly.
• Don’t rush when measuring out ingredients and following the cooking method.
• Don’t worry if a batter looks runnier or thicker than you’re used to… trust it, it will bake as it’s supposed to!
• Only use the correctly sized tin! If you put the whole batter amount into a tin that is too small, then the batter will overflow. Only ever fill the tin you have two‐thirds full.
• If you’ve filled your tins/cases and you have leftover batter, make some extra cupcakes or muffins!
• Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full! If you’re too stingy with filling them, they won’t rise nicely and they’ll overcook and be dry.
• When creaming butter and sugar together, always make sure you do this until the mixture is light and fluffy, usually at least a good 5 minutes. Otherwise your cakes will NOT rise nicely!
• Do the same for recipes that ask you to whisk together the eggs and sugar: this should result in a nice, light airy mixture, at least 5 minutes of electric whisking! Especially the cookies, otherwise they’ll be flat as pancakes.
• After adding flour to a mixture, don’t overbeat as this will overwork the flour and make the cake dense. Simply beat or stir until the flour is just incorporated.
• Get an oven thermometer that you can hook into your oven permanently. This ensures that your oven temperature is accurate and well calibrated. All ovens have hot and cool spots, get to know your oven well and use these spots creatively.
• Ovens vary greatly, so use suggested cooking times as a rough guide. First bake to about 3/4 of the suggested cooking time, and then check every 5 minutes until finished. (Never open the oven for the first half of the baking time as this may cause the cake not to rise.)
• Cakes, cupcakes and muffins are only ready when a skewer comes out clean when inserted, and they have pulled away slightly from the side of the tin. They are not automatically ready when the recommended time is up! If you take them out too soon, they will flop and sink deeply in the middle.
• The more items baking at the same time, the longer the baking time might be.
• Make sure that your baking powder and bicarbonate of soda have not passed their best before date.
• Don’t substitute self‐raising flour for plain flour – this will affect the outcome of the recipe!
• All recipes that ask for cream cheese must be made with Full Fat Cream Cheese. Other brands are too low in fat and will not work.
• Finally: if your outcomes don’t look exactly like the pictures in the book, don’t worry! These were professionally styled. As long as your goodies taste good and your friends and family enjoy them, then you’ve succeeded!

Click here for some of our delicious cake, biscuit and desert recipes.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Q: I would just like to know which is the healthiest oil to use to  cook with.  What  is the best oil to cook with, that does not taste bad?

A: Canola oil (or rapeseed oil) contains both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Canola oil’s proponents claim that it is one of the most heart-healthy oils and has been reported to reduce cholesterol levels, lower serum tryglyceride levels, and keep platelets from sticking together. However, only very long chain omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to improve cholesterol levels, and these are absent from rapeseed oil, so these claims should be viewed with suspicion unless or until further evidence of their activity becomes apparent.

Cold-pressed rapeseed oil contains about 95 % of unsaturated fatty acids of which about 30 % are essential fatty acids, linoleic and alfa-linolenic acid. Cold-pressed rapeseed oil contains about 60 % monounsaturated fatty acids which were shown to decrease the risk of breast cancer by 45 % in a Swedish research. This study was made in the Karolinska Institute and over 60 000 women participated. Cold-pressed rapeseed oil also contains plenty of vitamin E (30 mg/ 100g). A table spoon of rapeseed oil will give you about half of the recommended daily intake of vitamin E.

Rapeseed oil is a good choice for cooking with as it does not degrade when heated to high temperatures.

Grape seed oil is a vegetable oil pressed from the seeds of various varieties of  grapes, an abundant by-product of winemaking. Grape seed oil is used for salad dressings, marinades, deep frying, flavored oils, baking, massage oil, sunburn repair lotion, hair products, body hygiene creams, lip balm and hand creams. Most grape seed oil is produced in Italy,

Grape seed oil has a relatively high smoke point, approximately 216 °C, so it can be safely used to cook at high temperature. In addition to its high smoking point, grape seed oil has other positive attributes in relation to cooking. It has a clean, light taste that has been described as ‘nutty’.

It’s hard to look at a plastic container of cinnamon on the supermarket shelf and understand how valuable the stuff once was, but in premodern times, it was more than just a flavoring; it was a perfume fit for prayer or seduction, it was medicine, and, as Tom Standage notes in An Edible History of Humanity (Walker & Company, 2009), spices like it were “thought to be splinters of paradise that had found their way into the ordinary world.” Both cinnamon and cassia were known in Europe throughout antiquity, though their sources were long kept secret. Contrary to Herodotus’s fifth-century B.C. account—probably passed along by Arab spice traders jealously guarding their hold on the market—the spices were not stolen from the nests of giant birds or harvested from a lake infested with batlike monsters, but they did make extraordinary journeys to the West even so, sailing with the trade winds across the Indian Ocean or trekking overland across Asia.

Christopher Columbus, after reaching the islands of the Caribbean, wrote to his patrons in the Spanish court, “I believe I have discovered rhubarb and cinnamon.” This was no small matter, as it was the demand for spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and pepper, above all else, that prompted 15th-century Europeans to launch their ships toward the New World. The adventurers who followed in Columbus’s wake never found cinnamon or cassia in the Americas (the spices are native to Asia), but the far-reaching trade networks they mapped out ultimately made the spices both essential and easy to come by in kitchens around the world.

True cinnamon comes from a Sri Lankan tree of the species Cinnamomum verum (also called Cinnamomum zeylanicum) or, more precisely, from its oil-rich bark, which is hand harvested, scraped clean of its woody outer layer, and dried in delicate, multilayered quills whole or ground, it has a mellow flavor, warm and sweet all at once. Cassia comes from several species of tree also belonging to the Cinnamomum genus, with significant harvests in Indonesia, Vietnam, China, and the Indian Subcontinent . Its bark is thicker than cinnamon’s, making for stiffer, sturdier quills. Cassia is sharper in taste, with a pronounced heat. It can also have a bitter edge and for that reason is often knocked as inferior to cinnamon. In truth, each spice offers its own advantages.

True cinnamon lends itself to slow stewing and steeping, as well as to sweet applications; its round, clean flavor never comes on too strong. Think of a pot of rice pudding with a couple of cinnamon sticks in it: the heat of the milk coaxes out the spice’s lilting perfume. Mulled wines, sweet-toned Mexican moles, aromatic North African tagines, and chocolate desserts all benefit from the soft nuzzle of true cinnamon.

Cassia works well when you’re looking to give a dish a bit of backbone or to offset sweetness with a good, spicy kick: in chutneys, Southeast Asian curries, and snickerdoodle cookies, to name a few. I take care not to overuse or overcook cassia, lest a dish develop the tannic bitterness that is the hallmark of bad cinnamon buns everywhere. To explore the character of both spices, make cinnamon toast with each one: both cassia and cinnamon have fat-soluble flavor compounds (notably, hot cinnamaldehyde and sweet eugenol) that bloom in the warm butter, but the toast topped with cassia will prickle with mild heat and pleasing bitterness, while the gentle taste of true cinnamon will linger quietly and sweetly on the palate.

Article taken from Saveur.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Boksburg – (011) 823-5365 boksburg@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Q: I often have trouble getting my mash potato light and fluffy, What do you think the problem could be? I often buy pre-made mash and its always lovely and creamy.

A: Once you learn how to make mash the right way you will only ever make it and you will never want to buy store bought mash. As far as store bought mash they will often use creamers and who knows what else and thats how they make it so smooth, Below is a easy to follow recipe that we at Wickedfod Cooking School use in our kitchen skills class.

4 large or 6 medium potatoes
1t salt
2T olive oil or butter
1/2 cup milk
1 clove garlic, crushed to a paste (optional)
1/2 cup pecorino cheese, finely grated (optional)
Chives (optional)

1. Peel potatoes and quarter (even sized pieces) and put into a bowl of cold water.
2. Place in a pot, cover with water, add salt and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes (until a clean toothpick passes smoothly through). Take care not to overcook.
3. Drain in a colander for a few minutes, return to the pot and mash.
4. Add the oil or butter and mix in well. Gradually add the milk, ensuring that the mixture does not become too sloppy. Add garlic, chives, cheese and salt to taste.

Serves 4

Serving ideas:
- stews
- spread over mince to make cottage pie, or over fish for fish pie.
- tablespoons of potato can also be rolled into balls or cylindrical shapes,
dusted with flour and rolled in breadcrumbs and deep-fried.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood Cooking school runs Johannesburg cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Cooking lessons are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cookery classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

National Nutrition Week – Healthy Eating for Children:

Breakfast is a necessity! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for children. Breakfast provides us with the energy to keep active through the day. Skipping breakfast can cause a drop in blood glucose levels, resulting in irritability, headaches, shaking and lack of concentration.

Skipping meals may also cause the metabolism to slow down which could result is weight gain at a later stage. A good healthy breakfast can provide up to 30% of daily requirements so its a good idea to make sure it is nutritious and substantial. A few examples of breakfasts include:

• 1 small bowl of All Bran flakes and low fat milk
• 1 small bowl of cooked oats porridge, ½ handful of raisins and low fat milk
• 1 small bowl of fruit salad and low fat yoghurt with 1 handful of muesli
• 1 slice of whole wheat toast and strawberry jam with a banana

Louise Bembridge (RD)

Louise.diet@iburst.co.za

0832601842

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Boksburg – (011) 823-5365 boksburg@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.