If you aren't put off by too many words then scroll to the bottom and click 'older post' to take you to the long version of this article which dives a bit deeper.

There's no point in your cakes looking good if they don't taste great too! Here are my top 10 tips for a better bake.

If your butter is too cold it will take more effort to beat, resulting in a potentially dense cake. If your eggs are too cold your mixture is more likely to curdle. It's important to make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature before you bake. Take your butter and eggs out of the fridge the night before. 

Ingredient quality is important too - self raising flour is the prime example. Do experiments with different ingredient brands to see which works best for you.

If you don't beat your butter and sugar together for long enough your cake can turn out just a bit tough instead of light and fluffy. The cake is always 'OK' but nothing to write home about. Make sure you beat your mixture for long enough till you see the colour turn pale and the texture turn fluffy.

The opposite to under beating. The results of this can be a sinking in the centre of your cake with perfectly cooked but glue like patches throughout. It's a fine balance between under beating and over beating, and something that comes with practice.

Make sure you start with room temperature eggs. You can avoid curdling as best you can by breaking your eggs into a separate jug and beating briefly with a fork, then adding slowly to your mixture a bit at a time on a low to medium speed. Incorporate each addition fully before adding more. If you see the beginning of curdling add a spoon or two of your flour to rescue the mixture.

Everyone's oven is different. If your cakes come out domed try turning your oven down a bit. Baking belts can help too - I'm not so keen on them but I know some people swear by them. If the sides of your cake come out too dark a baking belt or wrapping in newspaper can also help with this. If your oven is drying, try putting a small bowl of water in the bottom while you're baking. Using good quality cake tins can also make a difference.

Not all recipes are created equal. Sometimes cake fails can be caused by something you're not doing quite correctly, but at other times it might be nothing to do with you, it might just be a bad recipe. Spend time giving the recipe a proper try, but if you get repeatedly poor results just park it and move on. Life's too short.

Test your cake and filling recipes! Do they taste good? What's the shelf life? Do they give you consistently great results? Listen to other people's opinions but check out all these things for yourself before you let a new recipe out the door. Everyone is different, but I'd never bake a new recipe for a customer without testing it to death first.

Build a little bit extra time in to your week in case the worst happens and you find you have to rebake. It can mean the difference between a calm or a stressful week and avoid the risk of a night shift!

As cake makers we generally work alone, but a network of cake buddies is worth its weight in gold. Troubles can be shared and problems can be solved. If you're having an issue with something, chances are it's happened to somebody else before you, and someone will be able to help.

Happy baking!