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So you think you can bake? Let Anna Olson give you tips & tricks on how to salvage the most disastrous times in the kitchen - from split chocolate to overwhipped cream.
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Series
Replacing Nuts
Can’t take nuts or simply don’t have them in your pantry when your recipe needs them? Anna shares some quick and easy substitutes that simulates the same addictive crunch while adding complimentary flavors to your cookies, brownies and muffins. If the recipe calls for ground nuts or ground almonds, she also has some fantastic options for you to replace them with in this video.
Stacking Cake Tiers
Stacking Cake Tiers may seem like a daunting task, but Anna breaks it down into simple and easy to follow steps in this video. We all love the beautifully assembled and often richly decorated wedding cakes, but did you know those creations are actually held up by non-edible reinforced bases? Learn how to create a firm base for stacking before you get decorating!
Caramel Sauce
Whether you’re prepping for Thanksgiving, or want a gooey sticky sauce to pair with your desserts, caramel sauce has that nutty, vanilla-like flavor that pairs so well with apple pie, gingerbread and sticky date pudding. Watch and learn from celebrity chef Anna Olson as she whips up a beautiful, fluid caramel sauce that you can pour over many different desserts.
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Vegan Baking
Learn the A to Zs of vegan baking from well-known pastry chef Anna Olson as she shows you the precise way to swap out dairy products from your classic dessert recipes. Replacing milk, buttermilk and sweetened condensed milk is a breeze with her easy hacks, that are designed to mimic the taste, texture and properties of their dairy counterparts. Put on that apron and get ready for some lovely and dairy-free vegan bakes!
Creative Bread Designs
Bread doesn’t always have to be in a loaf or bun. Get creative with the designs and shapes you can make with Anna’s beautiful bread shaping techniques. From Fougasse (beautiful leaf design), Epi (Wheat Sheaf) to braids, there’s so many easy methods to stylize your bread bakes so that they are stunning to look at, too. All her shapes allow for better bread expansion, so you can get that desirable fluffy goodness as you tear into your bread.
Dairy Replacements
There’re a few good ways to go about dairy-free baking, and Anna shares her tried-and-tested options to replace milk, butter or cream in your recipes. Her substitutes are all-natural, tasty and easy to find in your nearest supermarkets, so there’s no reason to skip on recreating your favorite afternoon tea delights in your kitchen even though you’re going dairy-free! Anna even has a wonderful whipped cream replacement in store for you – watch and find out what it is.
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Replacing Chocolates, Spirits & Vanilla
Being a home baker often means getting creative when you are missing essential ingredients like chocolates, spirits or vanilla. Anna provides super easy substitute options for three commonly used items for baking so that you can bake what you want without worrying over missing key ingredients. It’s especially handy for those who can’t take alcohol in their diet, as all her substitutes are alcohol-free!
Replacing Eggs
Being vegan doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on the best of creamy, fluffy cakes, muffins and pancakes. Anna shows you precisely how to replace eggs in your dessert recipes with this video, while “retaining the moisture and structure” that the egg lends. The best part? Her substitutions are also nutritious – loaded with fiber, protein and omega-3 fatty acids.
How to Make Parchment Cones
No piping bag? No problem – Anna has a quick way for you to make Parchment Cones so that you can pipe that “Happy Birthday” on your friend’s or loved-ones cake with molten chocolate. As Anna puts it, you’re going to “make someone feel very special” with this customized name design that you can reuse for so many future cakes and cupcakes.
Series
Buttermilk & Creme Fraiche Fixes
Whether you are making cornbread, buttermilk chicken wings or enjoying Spanish tapas with a dollop of Creme Fraiche, buttermilk and crème fraiche are two somewhat common recipe ingredients that are sometimes hard to find. Replacing them is not difficult – Anna whips up their substitute almost instantaneously in this video. Buttermilk makes your confections springy and moist, and if you’re lacking that ingredient, just make your own in just one or two steps!
Fixing Springy Dough
If you’ve got a springy dough that’s bouncing back faster than a tennis ball, Anna explains why and how to fix it in just one minute. Whether it’s a gingerbread cookie dough, pizza dough or English muffin dough, find out what’s the secret to having dough that doesn’t spring back at you!
Dry Ingredients Replacement
From brown sugar to cake and pastry flour, Anna shows you how to keep baking even if you don’t have these dry ingredients in your pantry. Swap them out for easily found ingredients in your kitchen, and your baked creations will still taste as good! Just take note of the substitution proportions that Anna recommends in this short video and you’re all set to continue making those addictive chocolate chip cookies or bright lemon hatbox cake.
Series
Masking a Layer Cake
Masking a cake is when you put frosting over the top and sides in a clean, plain fashion. For more ambitious home bakers, Anna has several quick tips and tricks for you to create a clean and precise masking layer over your delicious bakes. Get your blank slate right and your subsequent embellishments will stay on properly.
Piping with Leaf Tips
There’s a whole world of piping design possibilities out there, but one of Anna’s go-to favorites for simple wedding cakes is the Leaf Tip design. She shows you how to create an easy leaf ring around your cake, as well as how to create a gorgeous layered leaf crown to cover the top. New to this and made a mistake? Well, as Anna says, “scrape it off and start again”.
Piping Rosettes
Even if you have never decorated a cake before, Anna shows you how to get started with the “simplest and the prettiest” piping style that “looks just like real roses!” Whether you’re tasked with baking and decorating a birthday treat or Mother’s Day cake, this easy and beautiful piping style can be done in a single, continuous move, allowing you to cover your cake base with a bouquet of pink, red or blue roses in no time.
Royal Icing Piping Tips
Piping royal icing on a fondant cake is simpler than it looks, and Anna demonstrates how it’s done on a tiered cake that already has the fondant layer on. There’re a few functions to royal icing that’s not just decorative, and Anna shows you how this pretty and functional icing can be easily transferred onto your baked creations!
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Fondant Flowers
When you’re done covering your cake in fondant and decorating the sides, Anna has the perfect suggestion for completing your cake decoration – Fondant Flowers! In this fun, fulfilling how-to video, get creative with fondant dough (just like play dough!) to create some pretty cut-out shapes to “add polish to a special occasion cake”.
Fixing Overwhipped Egg Whites
We’ve all been there – enthusiastically (or perhaps over enthusiastically) whipping our egg whites and oops! We missed the window of opportunity to create the required soft or stiff peaks. When your egg whites lose their gloss and are not smooth anymore, Anna has the perfect solution to rescue them so that you don’t have to waste those precious eggs.
Fixing Overwhipped Cream
When your cream is over-whipped, it has a “grainy, dull look to it”, according to Anna. Thankfully, cream is forgiving, and there are some easy ways to bring it back to the correct texture as you’ll learn. The only thing left to do is to bake some pretty bund cakes, lemon tarts or just whip up a Starbucks style coffee to pair this luscious, fluffy whipped cream with.
Stabilizing Whipped Cream
Anna shares one of her best tips on how to stabilize whip cream so that it “holds every dollop, swirl and swish for more than 24 hours!” Don’t let the hard work on decorating your delicious cake, cream pie or cupcakes disappear overnight with her easy hack. It allows for your whipped cream to stay in place, even when you slice your cake!
Series
Fixing Split Chocolate
Has your chocolate gone from shiny and smooth to “part greasy and part gritty” all of a sudden? Anna not only explains why that is so, but also gives you a handy fix for split chocolate so that you don’t have to pour all that expensive chocolate away! Bring back the gloss in your chocolate with her quick and easy method, and continue making your decadent chocolate dessert without having to start all over.
