Baking cakes w/out a mixer

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Forum -> Recipe Collection -> Cakes, Cookies, and Muffins

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TWINNY

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 9:43 am

I don't have a Bosch (mixer). Does anyone know of cakes I can bake w/out one?

chocolate moose

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 9:45 am

I almost never use a m ixer. What's wrong with a fork or spoon and mixing by hand ?

WeAreOne

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 9:48 am

I never use a mixer and can make any cake. I have a hand mixer to beat the egg whites if needed.

Inspired

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 9:48 am

For a bunch of years I had no mixer. I had no problem making everything, except things that called for beaten egg whites, by hand. It helped tremendously when I started replacing all margarine with oil (3/4 cup oil replaces a cup of marg- never had anything come out bad).

greenfire

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 9:54 am

put all dry ingredients in the bowl ... mix ... then add the wet ingredients and mix a lot ... voila !!!

louche

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 10:14 am

No offense to you, OP, but I always get a good chuckle whenever anyone asks a question like this. What do all you young ladies think people have been doing for centuries? Working by hand, that's what! I'll tell you a secret, once upon a time, even before I was born in the Stone Age, people made their own flour by putting whole grains between two stones and grinding, grinding, grinding. Then they added water and mixed and mixed and mixed till it all held together, and called it "bread".

This is why pioneer women on the prairie needed no gym membership. Who needs a gym when you're chopping, mixing, beating, kneading, wringing, lifting, pulling and hauling all day?

In the kitchen

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 10:23 am

Yep it can be done...in fact I prefer to make cakes without a mixer, just because it is easier to wash a bowl and spoon than the mixer in my small sink. embarrassed

cityofgold

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 11:13 am

I find that anything without margarine is easy to do with a spoon.
Anything with margarine is harder, and usually needs your hands.
Using a whisk at the end helps get out all the lumps.

Louche, I agree that bread and cakes are easy enough without a mixer, and I never use mine for them. But cookies are different! they're possible, but not fun. messy and annoying.

Lady Godiva

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 11:21 am

Can you get a hand mixer?
I make my brownies and cookies by hand, but I like to use a hand mixer for cakes because I am too lazy to take out the heavy KitchenAid mixer.

sky

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 12:10 pm

For cakes and cookies I normally use a hand mixer. You can find them pretty inespensive. I only use my Bosch for big jobs - not regular baking - its too much to clean.

louche

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 12:50 pm

cityofgold wrote:

Louche, I agree that bread and cakes are easy enough without a mixer, and I never use mine for them. But cookies are different! they're possible, but not fun. messy and annoying.

I would never risk my little hand-held electric mixer with cookies. The motor is not strong, and if I stripped the gears and/or burned out the motor, that would spell the end of the little appliance. Cookies are strictly a hand operation in my house.

Consider it free exercise. Why waste money on the upper-arm workout class when you can hand-mix a batch of cookies with a wooden spoon? Then you can even tell yourself you can "afford" to eat a cookie or three because of all the calories you burned making them. And mixing cookies is way more fun than doing arm curls with a dumbbell Very Happy

bashinda

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 1:14 pm

I don't own a stand mixer. The only thing I use my hand mixer for is for sponge cakes or chiffon cakes. Otherwise I've made everything with a fork or spoon. Although I once decided to bake a cake on Shavuos and discovered:

a. it's really hot with the oven on at 350 for 2 days in a row
b. it takes a really really really long time to whip up egg whites by hand.

louche

Thu, Oct 22 2009, 2:10 pm

bashinda wrote:

b. it takes a really really really long time to whip up egg whites by hand.

sure does! do you have a rotary egg beater? it's not as easy as an electric hand mixer, but it's way easier than beating egg whites with a fork or a whisk, and kids love it!

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