Quite possibly the #1 reason for recipe failures is due to incorrect measuring.
This will be the first thing I will ask you when I get the question, “Gretchen, my recipe came out terrible! It looks nothing like yours on the video! What do you think went wrong?”
I will almost always answer “Double check your measurements, are you SURE you measured correctly?”
I have had terrible failures in baking many times before. So I always look to my measurements first when my recipes fail.
Often times I am rushing through, or simply not paying attention, or thinking I put in the baking powder when I actually did not. Or better yet, putting it in TWICE! Yikes, talk about LAVA CAKES!
Now, mistakes are mistakes, and I have made them whether using volume measures as well as weighing on the scale.
Forget to press the TARE function? Yep- mistakes happen.
But what I am talking more specifically about is INFERIOR measuring devices, such as the “Good Ol'” American Cups and Spoons!
Here’s the deal about the Volume Measuring System:
A cup is a cup. But what you put in that cup makes all the difference in the world!
Don’t be confused by thinking, “well, my cup measure says it is 8 ounces. So if I need 8 ounces of flour, then that’s 1 cup. Right?”
WRONG!
So you see we are already being tricked with weights vs. volume in the American measuring system.
The answer is easily explained when you think about 1 cup of feathers and 1 cup of rocks. Everyone knows these two things don’t weigh the same amount even though they have the same volume. This holds true for ingredients because density (therefore weight) does vary from ingredient to ingredient.
Not to mention, the word “ounce” can refer to both volume (capacity) and weight (mass).
There are ‘weight’ ounces and there are ‘fluid’ ounces. For example, you can have 4 ounces of flour (weight) and 4 fluid ounces of milk (volume).
Totally different things.
You could put a 1/2c of flour into a liquid measure that reads 1/2 c= 4oz. But this is FALSE. a 1/2 c of flour is NOT 4oz at all. It is more like 2.25oz.
And just for the record, OUNCE = WEIGHT! So you are already doing it! Just INCORRECTLY!
Let’s take this thinking over to the Metric System.
If I need a cup of flour it will weigh 130g. But a cup of sugar weighs 200g.
This is the rocks vs feathers example and a good thing to always remember when getting used to this new way of measure.
Please take a moment to check out this video where I explain more in a visual about using a scale versus measuring cups CLICK HERE (and skip to 7:47 minutes in the video)
I know it is difficult to accept change. But believe me, if you can just invest less than $15 on a digital scale, your recipes will start to transform!
Now look, I do understand that some of you cannot simply spend the money right now. I GET IT!
So in the meantime you will have to do some extra work in converting your recipes. Check out this great website for help there INGREDIENT CONVERSIONS
Hi Gretchen, I just recently had to stop having sugar and I am looking for recipes for cream cheese icings, chocolate icing and pie crust. I know that date’s are really sweet and can be used in some recipes. I can use milk and I don’t mind going vegan. Do you have any recipes that can help me on this journey? I would like something for the Holiday’s.
Thanks for your expertise!
Linda Starr
Hi Linda! Sugar will be my next frontier, but baby steps! LOL
You can sub any kind of diabetic sugar you like in “most” recipes CLICK HERE for a better explanation
yes to dates as a sweetener for sure! I am about to load a new recipe to youtube and here for my maple cream cake that uses only maple syrup and dates to sweeten.
So Im not sure what sugars you can use? is maple one of them?
Well, read the explanation in that blog post I linked and you will see where and when you can switch out sugars
Hi Gretchen! Before I put my question in, I would like to say that I love your channel and you inspire me to keep baking!
My question is do you have a nonvegan sugar cookie recipe?. I am a vegetarian but the people I bake for are not and they don’t want to try vegan and vegetarian bakes.
Thanks!
HI Thanks! Yes I still have all the non vegan recipes at http://www.gretchensbakery.com you can search for anything there.
I would love if you try the vegan version though, they would NEVER know! It’s funny to me how non vegan people think vegan baking is somehow bad if it doesn’t have animal parts in it! LOL , but I do “get it” 🙂
I’ve enjoyed the rainbow cookies recipe on your other blog for years. Really love the eighth sheet pans you recommended using for this treat as well. I’ve never been good at scaling up/down recipes (I’ve really, really tried!). Would you happen to have other recipes that call for use of these pans – would really like to use these pans a bit more. Thank you for your healthier and yummier recipes!
Hi Thanks! Yes I love them too! They are just so darned cute! Here’s a tip for scaling recipes to fit pans. 1 recipe typically makes 2-8″ cake layers ALL that same batter from the recipe will fit into 1-half sheet (12″ x 18″) for 1 layer of a sheet cake So, that means 2- 1/4 sheets (if you have those) OR tada….. your 4- 1/8 sheet pans for perfect layers to make a nice beautiful rectangle cake with exact same sized layers for easy building! Hmm…. I may have to do a video for that one! LOL
Hi Gretchen, how are you? My name is Melissa Rizzo and I’ve been a fan of yours ever since the Woodland bakery days. You have been a big inspiration to me and have taught me so much so I thank you so much for that! 😀
Baking/cake decorating has been my hobby and passion for a while now and I’m pleased to say that I completed my first official cake order (two specialty cakes) from a co worker last week. My co worker was very happy with the results and was the highlight of her party. In turn I have now received another baking order although this time it’s a cupcake order from another co worker.
I would greatly appreciate it if you can please give me some advice on a general guideline to price cakes and cupcakes to ensure that I am not under or over pricing. I have been struggling with this and want to learn the correct way. Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing back from you 😀
Hi Melissa, great news! and thanks for the continued support over the years!
As for pricing cupcakes, it’s not just a straight up answer as so many things play in. Where do you live? How “good” is your final product? What is your competition selling the same – or similar for? Are you trying to do this as a business? Or just re-coupe the cost? If so, what do you value your time as?
Being that I had a retail commercial bakery and did not just sell from my home, I had overhead, lots and lots of overhead (and why retail bakeries charge more in the first place)
Here is an excerpt from my eBook: “Guide to Owning a Bakery”
You must first know your costs; then there a lot of other things to consider too, before you can come up with a retail price.
The other things I ask you to consider include not just your raw ingredient cost, but the labor cost, the rent, the lights, gas to run the oven, insurance premiums, and the list goes on and on.
These are the things that customers would never consider. That’s why so many of them balk at a $2 price tag for a muffin or a cupcake. Some have even exclaimed, “$2 for a cupcake!?” And then proceeded to tell me that they know how much it costs to bake a cupcake, and it’s NOT $2 each! Well, Sally Jones, that is true.
If you’re at home and you are baking a batch of 24 cupcakes, you may be able to do it for under $15.
That is, if you already have the eggs left over from breakfast, and some flour from last year’s pizza party, and plenty of other ingredients. Otherwise you will have to buy all of those things, and you will spend way more than $25. But let’s just say you have some of the ingredients already, and only have to go to the store to buy some butter and cocoa and some cupcake liners. Let’s stick with the original guess of $15, which comes to about $.63 each. But don’t forget the icing! Sally Jones doesn’t have to pay rent for her bakery when she makes those cupcakes at home, and she doesn’t have to pay her employees to try to sell those cupcakes, and she sure doesn’t have to pay business liability insurance in case her son accidentally eats the cupcake paper.
So give me the two bucks and shut up!
But I am getting off the subject, though you can see this topic can really get me going.
Such customers have no idea what it takes to operate a profitable business.
And let’s face it: If it wasn’t profitable, then WHY WOULD WE DO IT?
It’s a fast fun read if you are interested in the whole thing, (Link is above)
Hi Gretchen! Thank you for your quick response and sorry for my late reply lol. I appreciate the time you took to write that helpful advice as well as the excerpt 🙂 Those are all very valuable questions that I will keep in mind for my future cake orders.
Hi Gretchen, I only found you now by a chance when searching for a vegan Italian meringue (and found your buttercream). And this hooked me, you got yourself a new fan! 🙂 I (as a Czech person) usually suffer with recipes online because so many of them are American based and therefore use the volume cups measurements which to me seem completely ridiculous. You have no idea how happy it makes me that I found another American creator who promotes the weight measurements (I’d be alright with recipes being in ounces by weight, that’s at least easy to convert to the metric measurements). In general, I’m a huge advocate for always (not only in baking) having written both of the options and I love you for doing that here. Can’t wait to try your recipes! Love from Prague, Jitka.
YAY! thank you!