To all of my beginner bakers, baking is a pleasure and a soothing exercise, so don’t panic if something goes wrong, there is always a simple solution. The first thing you do before you start baking is put on your large apron on, roll up your sleeves, pull back your hair, and wash those hands!!

– place all of your ingredients on the table

– butter the pan(s)

– squeeze and grate the lemons

– grate the nut meg or any other spice (if needed)

– break the eggs, each in a cup to make sure they are not spoiled

– weigh all the dry ingredients eg. flour, sugar, baking powder etc… and sift them; always mix the dry ingredients together before adding them to the other ingredients

– if heavy cream is needed and not available in your fridge, oops!! Don’t worry, here is what you can use as a substitute:

2/3 cup warmed milk + 1/3 cup melted butter, wisk together until ready

this will give 1 cup heavy cream

– if you forgot to take out your butter from the fridge before hand here is a way to soften it quickly:

place boiling water in a glass, dump the water out, and flip the empty hot cup over the butter stick; in a few minutes your butter will be soft enough to use

– most cake recipes call for butter milk and here is an easy way to make it at home:

1 Tbs white vinegar or 1 Tbs of lemon juice; add either one to 1 cup milk, let stand for 5 minutes; it will result in 1 cup of butter milk

if you are not sure of the freshness of your eggs, do this simple test:

fill a cup with water, drop the egg into the cup, a fresh egg is heavy and will sink to the very bottom while a stale egg is lighter and will float

essential tip:

always preheat your oven, and set it to the temperature that is mentioned in the recipe

here is a gift from my recipe book to yours; my special marmalade cake recipe:

2 1/4 cups flour (self raising) don’t panic if you are out of self raising, here is your substitute:

1 cup all purpose flour, add to it one tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

3/4 cup marmalade

Now you are ready to serve your cake, run your knife under warm water to serve your perfect cake slice

with love, Jahna