If you love nothing more than rummaging through your kitchen cupboards and seeing what culinary cake creations you can conjure up, then it sounds like you’re a confident cook who enjoys experimenting with interesting flavor combinations. Whether it’s cute cupcakes you enjoy baking or gooey ganache glazed cakes, sometimes, even your grandma forgets these simple yet essential baking tips.

1.  Always preheat the oven

Once you’ve whipped up your sponge mixture, it should be placed directly into a piping hot oven. Therefore, it’s a good idea to preheat your oven to the precise temperature in the recipe. Ovens take a while to heat up, so you might want to kill the time by playing some Cheekybingo.com or laying out the cooling rack and preparing your topping ingredients. The initial blast of heat a cake gets when it is placed in a hot oven helps it to rise because it forces the air bubbles in the batter to rapidly expand.

2.  Keep the oven door closed

As tempting as it might be, refrain from opening the oven door to check up on your cake. Opening the door blasts the cake with cold air which can cause the sponge to collapse and not rise as well.

3.  Beating the batter

The fiercer you beat the batter, the more air you’re whipping into it. When creaming the butter and sugar, make sure it has a fairly runny consistency and is pale in color. The more air you beat into a batter, the better chance it has of rising nicely.

4.  Be gentle with the flour

Once you have sifted in the flour, be very careful when mixing it into the batter. Use a metal spoon to mix the flour into the batter – use the cut and fold method to retain as much air in the batter as possible. Avoid using a wooden spoon where possible because it will absorb some of the moisture, making your mixture a little dry.