Pt 2 Sweet Bakings--Cakes, Cupcakes, and Mini-muffins

I've been blogging since September 2009. I'd started out with text content, later adding images. Over the last few years, I've accompanied articles with slide shows and videos that I've posted to YouTube.

Sweets seem to have piqued me, particularly from early to mid 2010s. This year has re-piqued me. In inventorying my recipe blogs, i came up with 28 cooky recipes and 19 cake and cake-ish recipes. In the cake-centric video, I list my blog catalog number with the article title and finished-item image (newest at top).

In musing about sweets, I'd noticed similarities and differences in topic choice and execution over the years. (For cakes, I started out mostly blogging about cupcakes and occasional mini-muffins.)

Morselly Cakes to Whole Cakes

Amusingly, my interest in cake recipes and documenting them have evolved from earlier times. Early on, most of my cakey topics have been articles with thumbnailish images. I did a few cake items a few years ago, with video. I recently got more involved with making whole cakes and videos for them. I seldom narrate videos anymore.

Some Cake Prep Changes Over Time

My cake pan preparation is now neater. And, after having had my tilt-head mixer, I finally decided to use it for cake batter mixing. The metal bowl's handles make pouring easier than using both hands on a glass mixing bowl.

One recent acquisition I've appreciated is my digital scale. It has five clickable units of measure and reads out to two decimal places. Zeroing out containers is a breeze, and weight readouts are more accurate than my old Braun scale.

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Related:
Pt 1 Sweet Bakings--Cookies, Mostly
Sweet Bakings--A Few Re-peerings

Pt 1 Sweet Bakings--Cookies, Mostly

I've been blogging since September 2009. I'd started out with text content, later adding images. Over the last few years, I've accompanied articles with slide shows and videos that I've posted to YouTube.

Sweets seem to have piqued me, particularly from early to mid 2010s. This year has re-piqued me. In inventorying my recipe blogs, i came up with 28 cooky recipes and 19 cake and cake-ish recipes. In the cooky-centric video, I list my blog catalog number with the article title and finished-item image (newest at top).

In musing about sweets, I'd noticed similarities and differences in topic choice and execution over the years. (For cookies, I varied baking cake mix cookies but also baked scratch cookies.)

Dough Mixing

In the beginning, I used pastry blenders for mixing. More recently, I've used a tilt-head mixer for mixing to save on elbow grease. Never going back to pastry blender. BTW, oatmeal cooky dough is the hardest to manually mix, imho.

Dough Dolloping

In the distant past, I used a cooky press or measuring spoon and spatula. More recently, I used a 1 1/3 T cooky scoop, which is a bit more convenient than spoon/spatula. Downside of either method is one-at-a-time dispensing, which also requires travel time and effort between dough bowl and pan.

Even more recently, I've tried making some disks and funnel shapes to use my cooky press. I still have more experiments. Using a cooky press saves on dough travel between dough bowl and pan.

In one of my recipes, I shaped the dough into a rough rectangle, then used a metal spatula to cut it into squarish shapes. It was easier than one-at-a-time dolloping.

Problem Dough

I've wrestled with dough that's stiff, sticky, or both. Dolloping wasn't much fun. My mind's been percolating with thoughts of spray oil and my "slice solutions brownie pan".

The pan and compartments remind me of an ice tray. I considered buying one, but they seem pricey.

OK, Not Baked Cookies

I included some fudge recipes. Although not oven-baked goods, they're sweet items anyway. I felt they were more cooky than cake because of handling handiness. Yum!

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Related:
Pt 2 Sweet Bakings--Cakes, Cupcakes, and Mini-muffins
Sweet Bakings--A Few Re-peerings