The cake should then be turned out and left upside down to cool to room temperature. ‘That helps to even the moisture distribution within the cake, because the water that’s within a cake is only able to escape out the top as it’s baking,’ Bouzari says. ‘Coming straight out of an oven, most cakes will be moister on the bottom than on the top, so by flipping the cake over as it cools, you’re allowing the underside of the cake to get some time to catch up and get rid of some excess steam.’ Make the fillings Jen Brown, Head of Marketing, Cake & Dessert at Dr. Oetker UK, said: “While space as a theme is part of most children’s curriculum at school, at home it’s a fantastic topic for activities, particularly when it comes to home baking. It’s fun and exciting for the kids, and it also means parents can add an educational element to after school activities, stimulating their imagination and encouraging creativity. Dr. Oetker, the UK’s leading home baking brand, is launching a third variant to its Spectacular Science! cupcake mixes. Stretchy Slime follows the success of its Crazy Colour Changing Icing and Squashable Jelly Bubbles which proved popular with families all over the country.

The age-old jam recipe is equal amounts fruit and sugar and cook it until it sets,’ says Walter Scott, food scientist and chairman of Tiptree Jam maker Wilkin & Sons in Essex, UK. At around 80C, the risen batter adopts its permanent shape as the egg proteins coagulate, the starch granules absorb water, swell and form a gel, and the gluten loses its elasticity. The texture produced at this point is then held until the cake is set by the coagulation of the egg and flour proteins, producing the familiar porous structure of the cake crumb. Using an electric mixer beat the butter into a creamy (frenzy). Then gradually add the sugar mixing in between. There are few things better than sitting in a kitchen as it fills with the smell of baking. So make a cup of tea and relax for the next 30 minutes, letting the warm smells emanating from the oven envelope you. The smell of warm butter; the slightly sulphury smell of the eggs as they coagulate; the dark caramelising smell of the browning reactions (and, if you get distracted, the acrid smell of burning).

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Traditionally this activity has been done with mini loaf pans (they measure about 6 inches long and 3.5 inches wide), which are made out of aluminum and are disposable. Most grocery stores carry them, and the advantage to them is that teams can have their own cakes. Three of these pans will fit side-by-side in a toaster oven. Baking can be broken into three stages: expansion, setting and browning. As the batter temperature rises, the gases in the air cells expand the stretchy gluten from the flour, then the chemical leavening agents release carbon dioxide. As the batter reaches 60C, water vapour begins to form and expand the air cells even further. Carbon dioxide and water vapour account for approximately 90% of the subsequent expansion of the batter, the remaining 10% being due to thermal expansion. The Dr. Oetker Spectacular Science! Mixes bring a whole load of fun and education to the kitchen as you can create your very own slime as part of the process, and then use it to decorate the cupcakes. The combination of baking and science creates an engaging family activity with some incredibly delicious results. The mixes tap into the wider trend for parents passing on key skills through affordable, easy-to-undertake family activities. By bringing the fun of interactive science reactions to baking, the kids will enjoy learning something new! Over-mixing is one of the most common technique mistakes people make when baking and can have a pretty negative effect on your cupcakes. Over-mixing your cupcake batter crushes too many air bubbles, leaving you with a dense sponge. On the other hand, under-mixing your cake can be equally as detrimental! Under-mixing can prevent the sponge from setting correctly, making it flaky and crumbly. Keep your cupcakes yummy by mixing your ingredients until they have just combined.

Another key parameter is the boiling time. It’s shorter than many people think, explains Walter Scott. The mixture needs to be boiled long enough for the pectin to form, but not so long that it burns. At home, and at the Tiptree jam factory, jam is boiled at atmospheric pressure. ‘This results in a degree of caramelisation,’ says Walter Scott, and the same reaction pathways occur as for the cake itself. At Hartley’s, however, the boiling is conducted at a lower pressure and therefore lower temperature, resulting in a different flavour profile. Discussion and conclusion

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Dr. Oetker, the UK’s leading home baking brand, is expanding its popular Spectacular Science! cupcake mix with a brand-new create your own solar system cupcake kit: Spectacular Science! Solar System. Beaten egg is added to the mixture to stop the fat-coated air bubbles, created by creaming, from collapsing when heated. The egg proteins conveniently form a layer around each air bubble. As the temperature of the cake rises in the heat of the oven this layer coagulates to form a rigid wall around each bubble, preventing it from bursting and ruining the cake's texture. Chemical leaveners: It doesn’t matter if you use an all-in-one baking powder or baking soda and sour milk (or butter milk, sour cream, crème fraiche etc) to chemically leaven the Victoria sponge cake. The traditional Victoria sponge recipe has five core ingredients: fat, sugar, eggs, wheat flour and chemical leaveners. Most of these starting materials, therefore, play multiple roles in the final product. It simply isn’t known exactly what is happening and why during all the stages of the Victoria sponge cake baking processes. There is, however, plenty that we do know. Beat together fat and sugar