An Introduction to me and baking

About me

Hello! My name here on blogger is 12BlueSquirrels and I should be blogging about many different things that interest me. At this point in time I am brand new to blogger but it has been a long time since I first wanted to write blogs and engage with other members of blogging communities. 

 Another much newer obsession of mine is baking. Currently I bake several times a week but I am still very much a newbie.  The things I bake are very basic, and this is usually cupcakes, sponges, and shortbread.  This is where Blogger comes in, or in other words, You! 

Baking

What I want from people reading this is recommended recipes, tips on home baking, and other important information about how to improve my baking skills.  Another thing I would like to know is what are the basic must-have utensils for anyone wishing to bake? I have the typical utensils, a wooden spoon, a mixing bowl, an electric whisk etc. but what I would like to know is what other utensils are necessary for someone who wishes to progress.

Past Experiences

 So far I have baked victoria sponges (mainly using internet recipes), cupcakes, shortbread, and a pineapple upside down cake. 

For my victoria sponge filling I used seedless raspberry jam and butter icing. I personally find the taste of raspberries a sweeter and more pleasant taste than strawberries. Another issue is that fresh cream is often soft and very rich. The buttercream is sweet without being a flavour overload.

There is one problem with this pineapple upside down cake. The very top of this cake, particularly around the pineapple rings was undercooked due to incorrect cooking times. It is important to put the cake in the oven so that the cake can cook all of the way through, something I learned the hard way!

These cupcakes were based on the ideas of cookies and cream cupcakes. However I decided to use bourbons and custard creams to change the dynamic of the cupcakes, incorporating the biscuit tin favourites into a delicious and very different treat. Both the cake mix and icing have small pieces of biscuit in, adding an extra crunch to an otherwise ordinary cupcake. 

To conclude this first blog I would be grateful to receive any advice and tips when it comes to baking, and recommendations for what I should cook next would be much appreciated. The follow up to this blog will show the results of any advice given to me, if you comment advice I will assume you are comfortable with me mentioning your username in future blogs.

Thank you my first ever readers! Until my next blog, Good Day from 12BlueSquirrels