Friday, April 5, 2013

The Most Awesome Baker's Secret (well... today ;))

Hi... my name is Renee and I am... cheap. Frugal is a nice way to put it, penny pincher if you will, but if I can find a way to make something less expensive... you better believe I will do it.  Now what does this have to do with today's post you ask? Everything... and I will tell you why!

Last year, I purchased cake pop pans, "Bake Pop" Pans as they are called- the type you bake the cake in instead of making the cake and mixing with icing type.  Kind of like the Babycakes Cake Pop maker... only in pan form that you can bake in your oven. Personally, these kind of cake pops are my favorite.  No offense to those of you cake pop purists... or to the ever awesome Bakerella...  I do make them both, and respect the process (messy hands and all) I just have texture issues... as I have mentioned before sorry... and I prefer the more "donut hole" like pop.  Just my opinion.  No nasty messages below please ;)

Anyway, these particular pans say that you must buy Baker's Secret pan release spray with flour. (hence the name of this post... little play on words... hahaha... sorry) Not that this isn't too surprising, since I grease and flour all my cake pans, but seriously... this stuff is almost 4 dollars for a can that is almost half the size of your regular baking spray (like Pam).  So I bought one... just to make sure that there was a real difference between it and greasing and flouring the pan.  And lo and behold there was... greasing and flouring the pans was not only time consuming, but left kind of a ... baked flour layer on the cake pops... not too appetizing.

And then I remembered a recipe for pan grease that I saw in a cookbook put out by one of the popular bakeries.  (Pink Cake Box? one of the others? I honestly can't remember, but if you know please enlighten me so that I can offer credit where it is due!!) I had made it once and loved it, but for some odd reason I never made it again.   Until now.  Not only is it quicker and easier than individually greasing and flouring the pans, but it doesn't leave a flour-y residue on your pans, but it uses every day ingredients so you know exactly what is going into your pans and onto your food.  And it is super simple ... and cheap... so seriously what is stopping you???

So here is the recipe... brace yourself... it's a doozy...
You take equal parts of shortening and flour and mix them in your mixer bowl until super smooth and creamy.... got that? K.. then you slowly pour in an equal amount of vegetable oil and beat the mixture until light and fluffy. There ya go... did you survive? I hope so :) And it looks like this...


Tell me I am wrong, but to me this looks like some gorgeous fluffy icing... is it just me? ;) So keep it marked well so kids don't decide to take a finger full... my daughter accidentally did after I had made it and lets just say she wasn't too thrilled with me... ;)
.
This lasts a long time (well as long as your shortening and oil are fresh that is) - and you can make as little or as much as you need since it's all equal measurements.  You don't need to keep it in the fridge, but I would suggest not letting it get too hot.  Room temp is fine. I just put mine in an ice cream bucket and keep it in my baking cupboard- and I bake a lot, so I make quite a bit (at least 1 cup of each).  It has never gone bad before I have used it.

So there you have it... the most awesome replacement for Bakers Secret ever- and even the replacement for your shortening and flour regimen.  Trust me... it's worth it!  You're welcome ;)

And to all of you out there in blogger land-
Sweet Dreamz!!! :)

Renee :)

No comments:

Post a Comment