AnC

Thanks Pete Fred, that's a v useful article. I do love John Lewis but unfortunately they don't have the right type of cake tin at the moment. But I think most brands that they stock are good quality so they're always a starting point for me for whatever I'm looking to buy. The Silverwood pans look promising - if they're good enough for Delia I'm sure I'll be fine with them!

Thank you for the further info, I will def be cautious buying any anodised aluminium tins then.

Thanks very much for the recommendation - I hadn't heard of Squires Kitchen but have looked it up and they have a couple of other brands to consider too so I'll call them next week to see what they recommend. Could I ask what problems you experienced with the anodised aluminium? I've just checked my cake tins and none of them are the anodised kind but I have a few that are the black non-stick material - I always assumed this was the most inferior material tbh but would you rate anodised aluminium as better or worse than this?

Hello, I recently did a bit of a stock take of my bakeware and realised that my usual go-to cake tin needs replacing. It's a 9 inch/23cm springform anolon tin which I was very happy with and have had for almost 2 decades but it's been battered about in a few too many house moves and is bent out of shape. But I don't want to replace it with another springform tin - whilst I think they're very practical and great for beginners, I've acquired enough bakeware over the years that I don't need this next cake tin to be as versatile as I originally did when I bought the anolon one. I'd actually much rather have one that bakes as seamless a cake as possible. I do like baking with fixed base tins but, that being said, a loose base tin might be ever so slightly more practical and I'll probably get slightly more use out of it. I'd also like at least a 3 inch deep tin, 4 if possble, again just to get the most use out of it. I have found a couple of loose base options that seem like they might be almost seamless - PME and Masterclass both do a deep loose base tin. https://www.masterclass.co/bakeware-4/cake-tins-3/non-stick-23cm-loose-base-deep-cake-pan-kcmchb36.htm https://www.pmecake.com/en-gb/bakeware/aluminium/loose-bottom-pans/Loose-Bottom-Cake-Pan-229x-75mm-9-x-3in/ Alternatively, if I go for a fixed base, PME do a 3 and 4 inch deep version but it seems Invicta is a more professional and seamless choice??? https://www.invictabakeware.co.uk/bakeware-and-equipment/cake-tins-assemblies/celebration-cake-tins/round-cake-tins/round-cake-tins-fixed-base/ https://www.pmecake.com/en-gb/bakeware/aluminium/round-pans/Round-Cake-Pan-229-x-76mm-9-x-3in/ Has anyone tried any of these at all and what do you think of them? How seamless are the loose base tins? Is your preference for a fixed or loose base tin? Finally, for any UK based (or UK knowledgable!) members, do you have any other recommendations for cake tins please? I'd prefer not to buy from a 3rd party retailer eg amazon or ebay and because of warranty purposes and ***** (insert expletive of choice!) brexit delivery delays, I'd also prefer not to have to order from an international website but online UK based web shops are fine as are proper shops! Thank you in advance for all help given!

Thanks for the tip, I think I'll compromise and just do the top as you suggested. It's a lot less mess and will still look good - hopefully!

Just wanted to provide an update and say thanks - I made the moist chocolate genoise cake in Rose Levy Beranbaum's book and it's perfect for my purposes so that's what I'm going with. Thanks JeanneCake for suggesting it and thanks for all the help and advice everyone gave!

Thanks JeanneCake that's very helpful to hear from someone who has past experience of this cake! I'm going to have one go at making a very mini version of the RLB moist choc genoise today just because I'm curious but I think the chiffon cake will be easier and tastier in the end. Thanks also for the suggestion of a water glaze, it's definitely a viable alternative!

Thanks everyone for all the tips. I shall use the blender, and then the pestle and mortar and brute strength if they need a bit more grinding!

Hello, I need to make a hazelnut paste - instructions say to blitz nuts in a food processor and add a bit of oil (best I can see the consistency needs to be very smooth, somewhere between smooth peanut butter and nutella). I don't own a food processor though. Will a standard blender, coffee grinder or spice grinder be able to blitz the nuts to a powder consistency? If not, will a cheap mini chopper such as the kenwood CH180 work? If I absolutely cannot use anything other than a food processor, please could I have some recommendations for a decent but cheap one (am in the UK) - will not be something I will use often so if it's easy to store too will be a bonus!

Hello, I have one more query regarding my upcoming torta setteveli! (my inspiration but not the recipe I am following https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/prue-leith-torta-setteveli/) This is for a milestone birthday for my brother so I want it to look good as well as taste good. I absolutely love the look of mirror glaze and tbh is probably a lot less time consuming than doing a fondant covered cake. The only thing is, I find mirror glaze (like any kind of fondant/icing) to look much better than it tastes but unlike fondant it can't be easily removed. I know there probably aren't many options for this cake as the top and sides will be covered in chocolate mousse but is there anything else I can consider instead of mirror glaze? The 'problem' with mirror glaze, for me personally, is that it's very rich and takes any cake from light and airy to a bit sickly - and not because the mirror glaze by itself doesn't taste nice (I've tried quite a few professional desserts that had mirror glazing so I've definitely had some decent ones!) but I always end up trying to scrape the glaze off and either eating it separately if it's only a bit or not at all. If it's the best option then I'll use it and take consolation in the fact that it looks good but it just seems like a waste of money and ingredients when I know most of the people who are eating it will prob prefer to not be eating it! Also, if I do use it, is there any way I could maybe just use it on the top and keep the sides free of it? If I pour it while the cake is still in the mould will it still drip down the sides? Thanks again all!

AAQuesada tyvm for the recipe and the link to the choc extract - never seen the latter but would be very helpful and have found a shop not too far that stocks it so will def give it a try. JeanneCake thanks for the advice - I managed to find a copy of the book you recommended and it was really helpful. Essentially my genoise turned out exactly as it should - apparently until you add the syrup it's a pretty flavourless so in that respect I was spot on. But it actually answered my questions above (and if anyone else also wants to know, you can use less flour and more cocoa but the less flour you use the denser the cake and there is actually a recipe for a moist chocolate genoise cake which actually uses melted chocolate in place of the butter). So, I now have a starting point for a couple of extra mini practice cakes without worrying I'll be wasting a load of ingredients! But I'd still appreciate any thoughts on what people think of using chiffon cake as the sponge base in entremets, just in case the genoise doesn't work out and also just out of curiosity!

Ty both I'm in England Kim - hope to welcome you back here one day! TdeV, I was looking for some advice after failing to find an answer to a query via the usual googling (posted a thread about it in pastry and baking) and so was looking for an active baking forum where I could get some help. I'm surprised there aren't many of them around, especially considering how much baking was going on during lockdown! But I only needed one and this one seems to have a lot of helpful and experienced chefs and bakers so I'm hopeful.🤞

Hello all I'm making a torta setevelli for my brother's upcoming milestone birthday in a couple of weeks. I've used this recipe as a sort of inspiration but I'm doing my own take on it and not actually using it as instructions for any part of the cake https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/prue-leith-torta-setteveli/ NB: any mention of standard sponge below means a regular victoria sponge type cake (pound cake in US?) I'm a confident and proficient baker but have never had any reason to make a genoise sponge before. So, knowing its reputation as a more 'challenging' cake, I did a lot of research, looked at a lot of recipes and decided on what seemed to be the fairly traditional recipe of 30g sugar and 30g flour (and by flour I mean starch really as it seems you can swap a bit for cornflour, cocoa etc) per egg. Butter seemed to be optional and there were a lot of varying quantities so I decided on 10g per egg as this seemed a bit of a halfway point. I made 2 mini practice ones - one with and one without butter. I used 10g cocoa (a good quality one that I always use in chocolate cakes) and 20g flour per large egg. I made them in the evening, wrapped in clingfilm when they cooled down and tried them the following afternoon. Technically, the genoise turned out perfectly - it was light and airy as it should be. I found the one with butter was a tiny bit more moist than the one without but both were still fine. The problem was with the flavour. The chocolate flavour was far too subtle - the predominant flavour I was getting was sugar. The cocoa was well mixed in and I've always gone by the rule that if making a cake chocolate, I substitute about one third of the required flour with cocoa and it's always worked out fine in the past. I know that genoise is generally more of a subtle flavour as it's not intended to be eaten plain but rather to complement other stronger flavours. But it really was just sugar flavour. And to add to this, genoise is also a drier cake than a standard sponge too and every recipe I've come across will always dab some kind of liquid on the sponge to retain moisture. I know alcohol can be used for this but as children will be eating this cake I'd prefer not to. Which leaves me with syrup but surely this will just exacerbate the problem of the cake tasting too sugary?? So essentially, my question is how do I make the genoise taste more chocolatey? I know reducing the sugar is an obvious answer but every single recipe I read always uses equal amounts of sugar and flour so I'm not sure I can use less sugar but the same amount of flour. Can I add more cocoa in place of the flour instead? Could I even use just cocoa instead of flour as it's not being used as a raising agent here? What if added some melted chocolate (either as well as or in place of the butter)? I'm a bit wary of making changes in case I inadvertantly affect the texture and I end up with a disaster! My other option is to use a chiffon cake in place of the genoise. I have made a few of these and I know they're lighter than a standard sponge but I've always made them as a cake rather than as part of a dessert (if that makes sense!). Has anyone used chiffon cake in an entremet type dessert or would it still be a bit too stodgy? Thank you in advance for any advice! I have a couple more questions regarding some of the other elements but I will post them in separate threads so i don't make this one into novel length confusion!

Hi everyone! Stumbled upon this website yesterday when looking for a forum where I could get some advice. Glad I did, seems like there are some v knowledgeable people around and have already found some great tips. I'm from the UK and love baking although I don't do as much as I'd like anymore (but def more than my hips would like!) so when I have an excuse to make something now I like to go all out which is what brought me here in the first place. I'm not generally a user of forums so I may only appear sporadically when looking for some tips or advice but happy to share any knowledge I can when I am around.