Jan Bilton: Simply measure, mix and bake

Nothing beats home baking.

There's something enticing about the aroma of home baking. But I know for many of us time-consuming bakes are not everyday delights.

Quick-and-easy is what we want.

The initial creaming of the butter and sugar is the stumbling block for most cooks. So what if we just mix all the ingredients together?

Well, beating butter and sugar adds air and lightness to a mixture. Adding the essences or spices to the butter at the same time helps with the flavour.

It's easy if you have a good electric mixer and the butter is softened, but not melted.

However, many successful bakes can be achieved using different methods. Melting the butter and golden syrup is the traditional start for making Anzac biscuits. Combining the dry ingredients and adding the wet is the basis for muffins.

Here are a few hints for successful bakes, whether by the creaming or less traditional methods:

Baking is much more of a scientific experiment than cooking the evening meal. Accurate measurements are essential. New Zealand recipes use level metric measures - never heaped spoons or cups of ingredients. A heaped tablespoon of baking powder in a recipe could change the texture, flavour and height of a cake. Too much raising agent causes cakes to rise beautifully, then collapse dramatically - usually just before cooking is finished.

Room temperature eggs should be used to prevent the mixture curdling.

The raw cake mixture should fill the pan about a half to two-thirds. If the pan is too big then the cake will not rise properly. If the pan is too small then the batter may overflow.

If a biscuit dough is too soft it pays to refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes before cooking to prevent the biscuits from spreading.