Baking - 5 Simple Tips - You can't screw this up
Hello Everyone!!! Happy New Year and Belated Merry Xmas, if you have noticed I have not written a single article since my last post is because I have been working on several new projects for 2018 and I have been doing some hardcore baking.
Lets get into in this article. Ever since early 2017 I have posted my pics of the progress that I have been making with my baking sideline job, it has been refined over the months, and the quality of products and recipes have been getting better. I now have a good handful of recipes which are the best sellers and I've been receiving several orders for my cupcakes every week. So I've been earning a good amount of sideline business.
What I would like to share with you especially if you are getting into the baking world are a few tips. These tips are specifically what I learned through this process. By learning i mean having people provide honest and harsh feedback on where your recipes stands in terms of if they want to buy from you or not.
TIP#1
Not all recipes on the back of a product can JUST BE SOLD! The recipes that I've gotten from a few books, or bag of chocolates seem to work for the tongue pallet of the person who wrote the recipe, 90% of time a recipe will always require tweeking to fit the pallets of the general people you sell your baked products.
Here is a good example:
The picture above you is my rendition of M&M cookies. Yes they are awesomely delicious. However the original recipe I followed resulted in a much crunchier & Salty cookie. Also the time required was to bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
So instead, i had to tweak the formula and reduce what was standing out like the salt, and cut those ingredients by half. The other problem was that 350 degrees Fahrenheit makes the cookie too crunchy so I had to adjust the heat a bit lower and reduce bake times. All of my customers prefer soft and chewy instead of crunchy.
So basically feedback and adjustment of recipe is necessary.
TIP #2
HEAT MATTERS!!! Gas Stoves Rule!!!
When you first do baking everyone who has a decent kitchen tends to lean toward electric ovens. After some saving up, I decided to get a gas oven to do most of my baking. The result is that gas ovens are more ideal than electric ovens because controlling the heat is more easier. Using an electric conventional oven tends to over heat and maintaining that "sweet-spot-temperature-point" is a bit more difficult. Using a gas oven, you can control the heat much more easier because what you are really doing is controlling the gas nozzle on the stove in terms of how much gas is burning.
Get a gas stove, the results are better.
Tip 3
Packaging is important.
Every client will have a reason to order from you, from 1st Birthdays to Weddings, obviously go with what the client wants. In the picture above, this is for a 1st Birthday the choice of color was Turqoise Green. What was the general focus?
- Color Theme was Green
- We made emphasis via sticker who is being celebrated
- Placing Emphasis on the event
Its good to go above and beyond and place emphasis in some way on the event in which you are providing your product for, it shows you were listening and you want repeat customers.
The Client was amazed and happy not only with the simple packaging but how great the cupcakes tasted. Someone else bought cupcakes from a nearby store, and those cupcakes did not have the quality and taste that my cupcakes had.
Tip # 4
Cost cutting quality products is bad. Choosing the right Ingredients good.
This is what I mean, take a look at the pictures below as I explain this.
The cupcakes here look too simple that anyone can make one, however after reading the original recipe and tweaking it, I've discovered that Alkanized chocolate cocoa powder is way better than your mainstream Hershey's cocoa powder. The reason being that Hershey cocoa powder only provides the aroma of chocolate but not the taste of chocolate on the first bite. All my cupcakes use alkanized cocoa powder so that every bite will maintain that high level of chocolate goodness.
The next part is that i used a vanilla butter cream frosting. Simple and sweet, anyone can do this, but do you want to use any kind of butter? Of course you switch to unsalted. It doesn't end there, what I did was i had to find the butter brand that tastes less buttery or like margarine. Eventually I found one, in the end the frosting came out perfect and the taste of butter was not existent after adding the powder sugar and vanilla extract.
The cost between switching from well-known products to alternate products was extremely minor, and were priced almost the same. However quality was enhanced greatly after discovering what product works best. This tip is where the key ingredient to what makes your product amazingly great will remain secret.
Tip # 5
Looks can be deceiving. Simplicity is your friend.
In the picture above, your eyes tell you that these are cupcakes with frosting. There is a drizzle of Chocolate syrup some sprinkles, nice simple lining, and its packaged in a box. Your mind says "this is good and eye pleasing and I know that when I bite into this cupcake, it is what I paid for." Nothing in this picture will say other wise.
Where I see a lot of other people who make cupcakes or any other baked product go wrong is that they "Layer" a product with things that make the main product not look bad. What I mean is that, I've eaten several bad cupcakes or baked products over time that I noticed that I was eating with my eyes and not with my tongue. Just because it looked filling or delicious, the outcomes 60% of the time were dissatisfying.
Buffet Restaurants are notorious for this behavior and provide nice and elegant products, only to realize in the end the taste was below satisfactory. They would serve creme brulee in a nice sauce dishes with a sprinkle of caramel nuts, or serve ice cream with fudge, chocolate ships, oozing with strawberry jam in their rendition of Lava Cake only coming to the realization that your eating a hodgepodge of sugar varieties without structure or balance.
Do you want to sell this way? Keep your products simple and clean, the eye-candy really is from the taste of the product and gaining the trust from your clients. Its easier this way than being a eye-teaser.
-SW