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Let's make Animal Sweets!

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Basics of Baking

It's important to thoroughly prepare when making sweets! Keep reading for tips on how to successfully make and enjoy delicious sweets.

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Tips & Tricks

• When making sweets, be sure to have adult supervision in case anything goes wrong.
• Be careful with knives! When using a knife, always do so with an adult present. Don't look away from your hands when cutting.
• Read the recipe carefully before you start!
• Measure the ingredients accurately!
• Clean up after yourself! Making sweets also involves cleaning up afterwards! After you're done, make sure to clean your tools and the kitchen you used
• Be careful with fire!
• Good hygiene is important! Before you start making sweets, be sure to wash your hands, put an apron on, and tie back long hair so it doesn't get in the way.
• Make sure you have everything ready before you begin!
• The most important thing:
  It's okay to fail! If you try again and again, you'll definitely get it!

Common Steps

Scoop a large amount of the ingredient, then slide the handle of another measuring spoon along the top edge to level it out.

Pour the ingredient into the measuring cup. Place the measuring cup on a flat surface and check the scale on the side.

Place the scale on a flat surface. Place a bowl or other container on top, then turn the scale on. Press the "tare" button to reset the scale to 0. Add the ingredient until you reach the required amount.

Eggs and butter don't mix well with other ingredients when they're cold. Take them out of the refrigerator and leave them for about 30 minutes. Butter should be soft enough that you can easily press into it.
(Room temperature is about 25℃ on average.)

Add flour to a strainer and tap the side with your hand to let the flour fall to the bottom.
Sifting removes clumps and incorporates air, making a fluffier end product. Without sifting, lumps will remain and the sweets will not rise well. If you have several different powder ingredients, such as baking powder and cocoa powder, sift them together beforehand.

Move the spatula vertically. Be careful not to overmix.

Using your spatula, scoop the batter from the bottom of the bowl and bring it to the top. Repeat until you don't see any dry powder. Be careful not to overmix. Mixing too vigorously will make the batter sticky, and it won't bake properly.

Place a smaller pot or bowl over a pot of boiling water to melt the ingredients. Be careful not to use too much water, as it will get into the ingredient bowl.

Microwaves are different according to each manufacturer, so check how your ingredients are melting every 5 seconds.

Allow to cool until you can touch it with your bare hands. For baked sweets, leave them on a cooling rack for a while. For liquids and creams, put them in an ice water bath or leave them until room temperature.

Apply a thin layer of butter to the inside of the mold. This will help the sweets come out cleanly when you remove them later.

Line the mold with baking paper beforehand. Lining it neatly will make a prettier final product.

Fold the paper to match the shape of the bottom of the pan, and make cuts along the (four places). Overlap the edges and place in the pan.

Cut a circle the same size as the bottom of the pan. Cut long strips with the same (or slightly higher) height as the sides of the pan.

Preheat the oven before making sweets. It's important to keept heating it for another 5-10 minutes with the door closed, even after the preheating period is over.

place the piping bag in a tall container and fold the top over the edge. It's best to fill it about halfway.

Twist the top of the piping bag to close it. Hold the piping bag with your dominant hand on top, and your non-dominant hand at the nozzle.

Crack the egg on a flat surface. Hitting it against a corner can cause shell pieces to go inwards and break the yolk.

When making a meringue, it's important to carefully separate the egg yolks from the egg whites so they don't mix. Crack chilled eggs into a small bowl and gently scoop out the yolks with your hands. Drop any egg whites sticking to your hands back into the bowl.

Letting the dough "rest" in the refigerator makes it easier to handle.

Heat in a water bath at about 50℃.
Quick-drying chocolate pens are convenient to use, however they harden quickly when they cool down.

Add cream and sugar to a clean bowl. Add ice water to a larger bowl. Put the smaller bowl in the larger bowl, making sure the bottom touches the ice water. Whip the cream using a a whisk or hand mixer.

* If the amount is too small, it won't whip well.
* Whipped cream is made by incorporating air into cream.

Used for making mousse. When you lift the whisk, the cream should fall straight down.

Used to finish the surface of a sponge cake. When you lift the whisk, the cream should fall in ribbons.

Used for piping decorations onto cakes or adding to crêpes and puddings. When you lift the whisk, the cream should form a little mountain, but the tip falls down.

Used in roll cakes. When you lift the whisk, the cream should form mountains with the tip pointing straight up.

The cream is inside the whisk and won't fall out.

Over-whipping the cream will make it lumpy. If it gets to this stage, add a little more cream to it and mix it slowly to get it back to its original state.

If the water and fat have completely separated, it's no longer salvageable. Give up on this batch of whipped cream, drain the water, and enjoy your sweet butter with bread!

A cornet is a cone-shaped piping bag made by rolling up a triangular sheet or baking paper. You put icing, chocolate, cream, etc. inside, cut the tip, and squeeze it out. It is used when you want to draw thin lines.

Fold a square sheet into a triangle, then cut along the crease using a pair of scissors.

Hold the triangle so the longest side is facing up. Line up the left and right corners with each other, then cross them over so they overlap.

Hold the overlapping part of the cone with one hand, and pull on one of the corners with the other hand to tighten the tip of the cone. Secure the cornet with tape.

Fill the cornet using a spoon. Fold the top of the cornet over to seal it, then secure with tape. Cut off the tip before using.

Twist your wrist, then touch the tip of the piping bag to the surface of what you wnat to decorate.

Hold the nozzle in place so it doesn't move, then squeeze the piping bag while rotating your wrist back.

Release and pull upwards in one smooth motion.

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Basic Tools and Ingredients

Common Tools

1. Electronic scale
2. Measuring spoons (teaspoon, tablespoon)
3. Measuring cup
4. Thermometer
5. Wooden spatula
6. Rubber spatula
7. Serrated knife
8. Brush
9. Whisk
10. Hand mixer

11. Bowls
12. Saucepan
13. Sieve
14. Rolling pin and Cutting board
15. Piping bag
16. Piping tips (star, round)
17. Cooling rack
18. Baking paper

Common Ingredients

1. Strong flour - Also known as high gluten or bread flour. It has finer particles and is smoother than plain all-purpose flour. the gluten is what gives things a chewy texture.
2. Weak flour - Also known as low gluten or cake flour. Commonly used to make sweets. Once you open it, the flavor will deteriorate and the flour will be more susceptible to forming gluten, so make sure to buy an amount you can use up right away.
3. Eggs - Animal Sweet recipes call for medium-sized eggs.
4. White/Caster sugar - Goes with anything. Has a richer flavor and browns nicer than granulated.
5. Granulated sugar - Has finer crystals than normal white sugar. Easy to mix without lumps.
6. Powdered sugar - Sugar that has been ground into dust. Use it in sweets with a "crispy" texture. Can also be sifted into icing or on top of a sweet as a finishing touch.
7. Milk - Full fat.
8. Cream - Choose based on fat content according to the dessert. for whipping, something with 40% or more is recommended.
9. Oil - Something "flavorless" is recommended, like vegetable oil.
10. Chocolate - Animal Sweet recipes use bar chocolate. Easily available.
11. Nuts - You can buy them roasted. If not, you can roast them yourself at home in a frying pan or in the oven before using them in sweets making.
12. Cocoa powder - Chocolate with most of the fat removed. Easier to work with than bar chocolate, but very bitter on its own.
13. Chocolate pens - Used for decorating. Sold in various colors at the supermarket. See here for how to use them.
14. Baking powder - Added to sweets to make them rise. Once opened, try to use it up as soon as possible.
15. Butter - Unsalted butter is recommended for sweets-making, so you can control the amount of salt you put in.

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