If you’ve been awake and on the Internet in the last couple of years, you won’t have missed the resurgence of some of the more traditional ‘feminine’ pursuits; in particular, knitting and baking have been embraced by a new generation of women in a way that would probably faintly perplex older generations who had no choice but to get to grips with handy household skills.
In these credit crunchly times, it’s also useful to be able to whip up some more budget-friendly sweet treats and also find ways to keep yourself (and your kids, if you have ‘em) entertained when going out just isn’t on the cards. At least, that’s the excuse I’m using for actually having a ‘baking drawer’ with supplies to whip up a batch of whatever at short notice (assuming there is a fridge full of eggs and butter, of course). There are many luxury bits and bobs in it that I’ve amassed over time, but here are my top ten essentials.
1. Sugar
Currently in my cupboard are caster, icing and Demerara sugar, which cover all your bases: inside the cake and on it. The first is a basic baking staple, the second can be made into thick icing and buttercream or dusted over anything to make it look considerably better, and the third is gorgeous as a crunchy sprinkle, with porridge or mixed through a crumble topping.
2 Flour
Plain and self-raising. Wholegrain if you’re feeling posh or ambitious.
3. Vanilla Extract
Useful for absolutely everything, this livens up plain cake mixes if there’s nothing else exciting to add and makes for some very tasty icing.
4. Raisins
Mixed with useful staple number 5, this might just make the best cookies in the world. Just ask Phoebe. And yes, currants or sultanas will do.
5. Oats
Gorgeous in cookies, shortbread, crumble topping and for breakfast. A brilliantly versatile ingredient; try mixing oatmeal, nuts, dried fruit and warmed condensed milk and baking it for the most amazing chewy cereal bars.
6. Ground Almonds
Denser than flour, ground almonds can be substituted (in different amounts) for some of the flour to make a damp, heavier yet more moist cake. My favourite is Nigella Lawson’s damp lemon and almond cake from How To Be A Domestic Goddess, although the lemon, almond and polenta cake recipe I just found on her website sounds just as gorgeous.
7. Food Colouring
Your basic primary colours mean you can get very creative with icing; the attached photo was what happened when I found myself with green (alright, a secondary colour, but still), yellow and a handful of sugared flowers. Fifties Easter on a plate, and it impressed the friends we had round for dinner with very little effort.
8. Sunflower Oil
Although butter makes for a very different texture (and shortening different again), a plain-tasting oil can be very useful if you regularly cook without dairy; in my case relatively often as I have a Jewish husband and relatives who require the odd parev dessert and at least one vegan friend.
9. Chocolate
If you can manage not to eat it – it’s a close call for me – it’s useful in virtually every form. At the moment I have some slabs of white confectioner’s chocolate for icing and a bag each of plain and milk chocolate chips for fillings.
10. Paper Cases
Okay, they’re not an ingredient. But they are very useful.
Have I made you hungry yet? Then I can recommend Candy Cakes, Lola’s Bakery or Crumbs and Doilies as a way to assuage that hunger because now that I’ve written about cakes I’m not sure I can quite be bothered to make them…
Image via AlexandraGoldstein.co.uk