AHi, I am new here. I have been reading a lot of posts and thought this looks like fun! I love baking. I am NOT good at baking cakes at all. But it is so fun and brings out the mad scientist in me. Also I love *trying* to make candy for the same reason. I am bad at baking cakes for mainly 2 reasons. I hate following recipes all the way. And I usually take my cake out of the oven too soon. My number one prized cake is a cake roll. That one is really hard to screw up completely because it does not take very long to bake. Is there any resources you would recommend to someone like me? I like joy of cooking cook book. That's where I learned how to make chiffon cake roll. Sorry for long intro. I probably will be reading and taking notes mostly on other topics after this.

welcome-- check out 'joy of baking' online too -- sounds like baking cookies might appeal to you

AOr cupcakes

AThanks! Joy of baking is great, too. There are candy recipes also, yay.

Learn the "dip and level" method of measuring, or better yet, use a scale. Kids learn by watching mom and grandmom, and after 50 years of practice, it all looks easy.

Cake, more than anything else, needs a perfect balance of oils, leaveneres, and flour. Mess it up, and your cake is doomed.

Patience helps. Toothpicks to test for "doneness". 

A little extra attention, and you should be fine. "Mad scientist" comes into play after you "get it". Cake Bible helps with doctoring your own recipes, but unless you measure exactly, EVERY TIME, you will never be able to recreate what you did, even if it is the next cake mastery. 

A

Great advice and motivation to follow a recipe for once. I do want to be successful. And I am going to go to the library and see if they have cake bible.