Did you catch the Great British bake Off Masterclass program? It was on the week after The Great British Bake Off final. Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood showed us how the technical challenges from the show should have been made. They made it look so easy!
I picked up a ton of tips in that one program (you can watch it here) but the tip I have used the most and think is sooooo useful is Mary Berry’s butter tip.
Room temperature!!!!
How many times have you gone to bake a cake and found that you’ve forgotten to take the butter out of the fridge to let it get to room temperature? Or you’ve decided that you need just a smidge more buttercream, but your butter is all still chilled and hard. Well, not anymore. Mary’s tip for quickly softening butter is ingenious.
Simply cut it up into cubes straight from the fridge and place it in a bowl of tepid water (not hot- trust me, hot water makes a BIG mess!). Leave for just 10 minutes -usually the time it takes to measure out the rest of a cake ingredients, drain the water away and it’s perfectly soft and ready to use.
I’ve done this so many times since the program. Tonight I felt like making a warm and wintery apple cake, so I softened up the butter in less time than it took to slice and core the apples! You can see from the picture above that the butter became nice and soft and left a finger sized dent when pressed after it’s warm soak!
One thing I would recommend is that you measure out the butter you need for your cake before softening it up. Otherwise you have to re-chill it and that’s not a good idea!
EmmaMT
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I am only just catching up on the masterclasses and watched the doughnut one last night – it makes me want to make everything all over again!
That is an amazing butter tip… does it not start to melt into the water though, don’t you get blobs of butter escaping?
I thought that would happen but as long as the water is tepid (I have it just a tad warmer than my hand) it’s perfect. Warm-hot water makes a big mess. Don’t go there!!!!
Sounds a good idea to me
nice tip, I always forget to take the butter out off the fridge before baking ^^
Me too! Or I don’t take enough out of the fridge in the first place!
This tip worked a treat! I used it for the rhumbaba which was a great success.
I know! I do it for practically everything I bake now – I have a very cold kitchen! And it makes the cake mixes blend so well. I’m sure my cakes have improved because of it.
Thanks for stopping by
EmmaMT
i just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds lol
Hello,
I was told that the microwave makes some butter melt too quickly while other areas stay cold and hard. It can make a cake not bake quite right – but I bet you don’t have any problems do you?
EmmaMT