Leith's British Baking Masterclass

As you know I was recently made redundant from my day job and my lovely work friends were very generous with my leaving gifts. I got a set of Orla Kiely cake tins, a great necklace with an oven glove, grater, whisk and frying pan charms and (the reason for this post) a voucher for Leith's Cookery School. I chose to do the British Baking Masterclass, a one day course that covered all the basics. I thought it would be a good class to make sure I was solid in all the cake techniques.
I did the course two weeks ago. I really enjoyed the day, everyone was very helpful. What it showed me was that I am pretty ok on the basics, now I need to start using those skills to experiment.

The things I learned that I sort of already knew:
1. Creaming the butter and sugar until it is really, really, really pale and fluffy, you can never do this too much.
2. Always fold in the flour to your batter, not over-working it.
3. Oven temperature is key, "know your oven".
4. I'm pretty good on all the techniques.
5. Always have the eggs at room temperature.

The things I learned that I didn't know:
1. When making a sponge beat all the eggs together first and then add them a tablespoon at a time to your creamed butter and sugar, whisking them well in between each addition. This makes for a lighter sponge, you get more air into the mixture.
2. Whatever raising agent you are using (Baking Powder, Bicarbonate of Soda) once this added to your mixture the chemical reaction starts immediately so it's important to get the cake in the oven as soon as possible to take advantage of that rising.

As I knew, baking is a science. It's about chemical reactions, the the ingredients you use as well as how you use them will determine the outcome of your cake. I also got a book recommendation from one of the chefs. It is all about the science The Science of Good Cooking . I want to learn the science behind all these reactions and then I can use that knowledge to experiment and be creative. Well, that's the idea anyway!

Below are the fruits of my labour: Victoria sponge with a passion fruit butter icing, lemon and blueberry friands, sun-dried tomato and basil scones and cherry and chocolate cookies. I have to say that the sponge was probably one of the best I have ever made so the course was worth it just to master that.

I also got a certificate! It came in the post yesterday, to get it framed or not?!!!