Hi all. I'm new here, and am finding fantastic information on this site. Thanks to all for sharing! My mother and I have a small business doing wedding cakes and desserts and baked goods, etc. so I spend plenty of time baking cakes. I just wanted to offer a few comments from my own experience. First, you certainly can do your mixing by hand. You don't NEED any particular mixer. Also, you can walk to the supermarket for your groceries, or you can drive a Lexus. Kitchen Aid mixers are the love of my life... we have three. The first was a gift that my father purchased for my mother almost 20 years ago, and it is the largest, and the one we still use most. The other two are "baby" mixers, the non-commercial size. My mixer, the most recent addition to our happy little mixer family, was purchased on sale at a department store for around $170, which seems like a lot to some people. However, after using my mixer for about two weeks, it met with a tragic accident. For whatever reason, the bowl flipped up and the beater got stuck and fried the motor. I immediately emailed the company, and had a new mixer sent to me via UPS in less than a week. I sent the broken mixer back, which UPS picked up at my door a few days after I had received it's replacement. They paid all the shipping, and even followed up with me to make sure the new mixer was working properly. I cannot say enough good things about the company! Plus, the mixers are truly top of the line. Even Emeril uses one! Also, in previous posts I found excellent advice on testing your oven temperature, and finding "hot-spots". The sugar cookies are a wonderful idea, and not something I would have ever thought of. Ovens are all different, it's true... and I believe that even the best of the best would burn stuff in my oven trying it out the first time. I have a thermometer and check it OFTEN. When is a cake done? Depends on how you like it. Moist is preferable in most cases. I can't stand cake that feels like sawdust in your mouth, and I do believe this is where many novice bakers go wrong. Personally, I don't use a heat core or flower nail for any size layer, but after reading notes on it speeding baking time, I might just start. One thing to remember... baking is partly exact formula, and a greater part love. I made about 800 loaves of white bread (most of which turned out to only be suitable for propping open a heavy door on a nice spring day) before I learned that it wasn't my lack of kneading skills, it was my recipe. For those of you out there who want to try baking as something "new", please, I implore you, get a recipe from a trusted friend or relative. Get a recipe that someone has had repeated sucess with. Then, get them to watch over your shoulder and help you along. The recipes I use for my business for the most part have been passed down in a badly deteriorating notebook that once belonged to my grandmother. Her recipes were her mother's and grandmother's before her. Those are the recipes that mean the most, and the ones that will make you go... it was worth the time... when those cookies come out of the oven!
