In the world of baking, the list is endless, however the common and basic ingredients will be outlined in this chapter. Also, depending on your available kitchen or pantry space as well as expertise, you can stock up a wide range or list of baking ingredients. For beginners or for those just setting up their space, this chapter will help you narrow down your list to the basic you need to keep hands on daily, and everything other than those listed in this chapter are so to speak, icing on the cake. Although there are a lot of store-cupboard or pantry staples that are worth being made available, you can whip up a dessert whenever you wish. The listed ingredients have lengthy shelf life. Hence, even though you are not a frequent baker, they are the ingredients you would not mind stocking up.
Flour: There are diverse kinds of flour, from plain flour, self-raising flour, almond flour, whole-wheat flour etc. The basic flour for baking is plain flour. Self-raising flour is made from the mixture of plain flour and small amount of baking powder. For instance, if a recipe states plain flour, you would see it specifies a raising agent like bicarbonate soda or baking powder to bring about a good rise. Some other flours such as whole-wheat meal, almond flour etc. are denser in texture, hence it is unsuitable for cake recipes, and however it can be mixed with self-raising or plain flours.
Butter: This is commonly used in cake recipes and is known to be all-round useful item in the fridge. With varieties ranging from unsalted butter, salted butter etc. It imparts unique flavors and is great for creamed cakes when beaten together with sugar to integrate air into the mixture for production of a light textured cake.
Cocoa: Mostly used in chocolate-based recipes, it provides the distinct chocolate flavor, texture and appearance. It has the advantage of not requiring to be melted. Cocoa is totally stable. Oftentimes, few tablespoons of cocoa are sometimes used to replace flour together with melted chocolate to bring about texture and flavor to the recipe.
Chocolate: This is worth having in your pantry for making chocolate mug cakes or crumbling up to use as chips for rich chocolaty toppings for cake. Unless otherwise stated, most recipes use plain chocolate which is about 40% solids of cocoa. (Free tip: for variety you might want to stock up milk and white chocolate for flavors).
Eggs: Known for its flexibility in use, eggs are used as a binding ingredient, beaten to make creamy dessert, as well as used in batters of cake to trap in air.
Sugar: This includes confectioners’ sugar, brown sugar, granulated sugar, caster sugar, icing sugar etc. Caster sugar is commonly used in cake making especially for creamed cake because its fine texture blends perfectly well. While icing sugar is the main ingredient for buttercream (sugar blended with icing sugar) and glacé icing (i.e. water mixed with icing sugar). Also, it is beneficial to have a variety of brown sugars both dark and light soft brown sugar and muscovado. All these sugars possess their unique flavor and mostly found in fruit and other richly seasoned cakes.
Sunflower Oil: Can be used for many culinary uses. It is also ideal for baking as it possess a mild flavor which gives room for the flavor of other ingredients to come about.
Vanilla Extract: This is a pantry essential. Although it is best to buy the natural vanilla beans rather than buying the cheaper version, vanilla essence extract that is. The flavor of the vanilla beans is much preferred. Although it is much preferred to purchase the vanilla bean because of the natural unadulterated flavor, rather than buying the cheaper versions i.e. vanilla essence.
Spices: Mostly used spices in baking include ground mixed spices, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger etc. The above mentioned are worth stocking while other as mentioned in the recipes can be gotten later.
Salt: Commonly used in everyday baking and cooking. The varieties include kosher salt, sea salt, rock salt etc.