My parents love to cook. They aren’t professionals, but in a sense they could’ve been. While my mother was great with African and finer French cuisine, my father preferred preparing Asian dishes. As children, my siblings and I preferred cereal, pasta, burgers and pizza. I do feel sorry for my parents and now try to make it up to them by showing my appreciation for every meal we share and by learning all of their great cooking tips, and sharing my own.
I used to be the family baker and would make crepes, pancakes, madeleines, and birthday cakes. I loved it and treated it like an art. Now that I am more aware of the thing I do, I have been more adventurous with my recipe selections, and have tried to vary the preparation and ingredient selection to get to the best results. One thing I found is that many of my favorite baked goods use the same ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, sugar. Luckily, I found the perfect way to mix them all together and get no lumps! Lumps. If you’ve ever made crepes, you know what a nightmare lumps can be. Well, I learned to make lump-less batters and passed this wisdom onto my parents, who were enlightened.
When making a pound cake or crepes, the first ingredient you want to mix, in this order, are the sugar, the eggs, and melted butter. When a recipe calls for butter, I do not recommend using shortening or margarine. I have made a variety of cakes using these substitutes and found that the consistency, fluffiness, and flavoring of the cakes were best with butter. It’s a simple old-fashioned ingredient, and the best for a reason.
When your mixture is smooth, gradually add the flour, depending on the quantity, 1/4 cup at a time more or less. I mix from the center rotating in one direction, then scrape the edges gently adn bring the flour back to the center, and return to the center now mixing in the other direction. Do this gradually, and add milk or whatever liquid is involved, if any, when the batter gets too think. Do this gradually and you will have a smooth batter. Then you can add oil, baking powder, salt, or whatever is left. I hope this tip helps!