Ingredients I use
the most
Baking shouldn’t mean a really lovely cake is
only possible after hours of serious questing
for a list of esoteric ingredients. I love fresh
yuzu but use the bottled yuzu juice if needs
must. I believe most ingredients should be
within everyday reach, and that your baking
budget, without ANY quality shame, should
determine what you buy. If you can bake with
lavish amounts of vanilla bean, enjoy. If you
can only afford (or have) imitation vanilla
essence, sure, it will taste different, but it will
still be a wonderful bake that YOU made.

I am obsessed with ingredient labels, using
the nutritional panels to provide knowledge
about the fat, protein and water contents of
ingredients. Using the percentages on the
nutritional panels, and keeping these consistent,
means my baking outcomes are consistent too.

Dry goods don’t last forever, so if you are
an intermittent baker, share dry goods with
a baking buddy so they are used quickly.
Dry store
Following is a list of the ingredients I keep
stocked in my baking pantry.

Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda
(baking soda) and cream of tartar

Baking powder The heavy hitter of leavening,

doing its best work in the heat of the oven.

Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) Gives a bake
an initial lift (it activates with liquid AND heat).

Great to use a little with cocoa/chocolate/spice
recipes, where it deepens the flavour and colour.

Cream of tartar Cream of tartar is like Pilates

for your egg-white foam, keeping it flexible and
strong with maximum aeration. Without it, your
foam can become rigid and chunky with leaking
water, making a weak, flatter batter. Add a heaped
teaspoon, or 5 g per 300 g (⅛ oz per 10½ oz) of
whites, before you start to whip.

These powders lose efficacy as they age, so write
the purchase date on the packet and replace it
every six months.

Chocolate and cocoa powder
If your budget allows, bypass sweetened
compound/cooking chocolate buttons or chips
and instead buy good chocolate from the eating
chocolate aisle, or splurge and buy the fancy stuff
online in bulk. My recipes will list a recommended
percentage, which refers to the amount of real
cocoa – solids or butter – in the chocolate you
are buying. A higher percentage means a more

intense chocolate. My go-tos are a bittersweet

chocolate around the 60 per cent range (a higher

percentage will give you more bitterness and

a firmer set), milk chocolate around 30 per cent

and quality

white chocolate (cocoa butter only)

around the 20 per cent–plus mark. Chocolate bars
can be chopped into button-sized pieces, and add
the fine shards too – they will enhance the dough.

My chosen cocoa powder companion is Dutch

(unsweetened) cocoa powder. This has had a

neutralising alkali treatment, making it work with
leaveners such as baking powder and bicarbonate
of soda (baking soda). Natural/raw cocoa powder
is too acidic, and sweetened drinking chocolate is
too sweet thanks to the added sugar it contains.

Skip these.

Cacao nibs These are like nature’s chocolate

chips – unsweetened chopped cocoa beans.

Use them with a light hand as a garnish on cakes
or glazed cookies.

Melt with you Be a cautious melter to ensure

your precious chocolate doesn’t burn. The two
melting paths are: 1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl
over a barely simmering double boiler (the bowl
shouldn’t touch the water). If the chocolate gets
too hot, swiftly get it off the double boiler and
throw in a small handful of fresh chocolate to drop