I've been creating recipes for use with Thermomix machines for 15 years now, and one of the most common questions I get is "how do I convert my family-favourite recipes to the machine?". Well, unfortunately, most of the time it's pretty difficult unless you're a very experienced Thermomix user. My best advice is to stick to tried-and-tested recipes from experts while you're growing in confidence with your machine. Let me make the mistakes so you don't have to! I put every recipe through meticulous testing to ensure perfection, and it's worth every effort – my reputation for reliable, delicious, work-every-time recipes speaks for itself.
In saying this, one area I am able to guide you in is simple cake batters... I can help you take those favourite cake recipes and turn them into easier Thermomix versions! So let's get stuck into it...
My below guide works for what I describe as simple cake batters (including cupcakes)... meaning traditionally all the dry ingredients are sifted together, the wet ingredients are beaten together, and then the two combined. My tips here are not for recipes requiring egg whites to be beaten separately. That's a whole different kettle of fish!
🧁 If your recipe asks you to cream the butter and sugar, we'll do that first. Add butter (ensuring it's at room temperature) and sugar. Mix for 30 seconds, speed 4. Then scrape down the sides of the TC bowl, pushing all the mixture back down to the bottom. By far the best utensil for this is our Thermo Spoon Spatula (135 five star reviews can't be wrong!). Then mix for a further 30 seconds, speed 4.
🧁 Next, add all your remaining wet ingredients, including all whole eggs and egg yolks, and mix for 10 seconds, speed 4.
🧁 Add all dry ingredients, including flour - no need to sift first. Mix for 20 seconds, speed 3. In my opinion, when making cake batter, once the flour has been added you should never mix above speed 3. Any faster and we can start to activate the gluten in the flour, like when we're kneading bread dough. Now for bread dough, this is the desired result, but for a cake, that's the last thing you want! To keep our cake light and fluffy, we never want to activate the gluten.
🧁 Your flour probably won't be all combined at this point, that's ok. We're going to finish folding it through using our Thermo Spoon Spatula - this should take less than a minute. I would prefer us to have to do 30 seconds of manual labour, rather than risk a tough cake.
🧁 Your cake batter is ready! Pour into your lined tin or greased moulds - the easiest way to do this is using one of our reusable cake tin liners, available in classic round, loaf, square slice and BRAND NEW rectangular sheet cake! We've got all options covered. Alternatively, for mini individual cakes, the easiest option is cooking them in my naturally non-stick bar moulds - no need to line these, just pour your mixture in and bake for 15-20 minutes.
🧁 Lastly, once you've poured or scooped out your batter, there's usually a decent amount stuck on and under your blades. To easily flick this off, blitz for 1 second, turbo speed. All remaining batter will be flicked to the side of the thermo bowl, easy for you to scrape out with (you guessed it!) your Thermo Spoon Spatula. Less wastage, more cake, easier clean up. That sums me up 😂
Please remember this is just a guide... it won't work for every recipe, but my hopes are it will be useful ❤️️
