Bronwen Wyatt
Appearances
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
I would also say for first time bakers, do not ignore the recommended pan size in the recipe that you're using. I feel like that's like a really big place. I see a lot of people where they're like, oh, I didn't have a nine inch pan, so I used an eight inch one. And then the cake was like dry and burnt on the outside and too crusty on the inside.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
And it's like, well, it's the pan size really lends like a lot of structure to the cake. It allows it to bake correctly and within the allotted time frame. Like it's actually a really important thing that unless you're a little bit more experienced, you shouldn't play around with too much.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
I think with a one layer cake, like an olive oil cake, you can achieve a lot of really pretty effects of just confectioner's sugar. So maybe you lay out parchment paper over the top of the cake with like stripes and then dust your confectioner's sugar on that. Remove the parchment paper and you have this really dramatic visual effect for like almost no time or money.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
And then you could just like place like a few little beautiful berries or slices of citrus. And you'd have a really like visually stunning cake without even having to pick up a piping bag.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
I'd say the big ones. We saw like a huge explosion of people using, you know, so-called ancient grains during the pandemic. And I think we're still seeing that carrying through, especially more in sweeter applications, not just these gorgeous rustic loaves of bread that people have been baking. So you're seeing cakes made with rye flour, with buckwheat, with einkorn flour.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
I think that is still a very strong trend. Obviously, the fresh floral botanical garnishes, we're moving a little bit away from things having to look incredibly perfect. We're seeing much more like organic shapes in cakes. So they're not all just like round or square. Some of them look like mounds of rock. Some of them look like clouds. Yeah.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
There's a lot of really gorgeous creativity in that space happening right now. And I would say, too, I think that a fascination with unusual citrus is still something that we're seeing a lot of. So yuzu is incredibly popular right now. Calamansi lime is going to be, I think, continue to be really trendy today. Yeah, I think people are really into bright puckery flavors right now.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
Glow on top of this cloud.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
I would say like at least five or six thousand. Cheryl, you've been doing this much longer. I mean, a lot of cakes.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
I would imagine. But I think you're pretty spot on when you talk about like church cake culture. I think that's a big part of it. You know, obviously, the South has a pretty strong religious tradition. But I would say too that, and maybe I might just say it has something to do with our more seasonable climate, but there are a lot of gatherings here.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
And there's a lot of opportunities for bringing a baked good together to join together with a larger group of people. And that could also perhaps be one reason. Yeah.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
I would start with a single layer cake. I think they can look just as beautiful as a dramatic layer cake, but it takes out so much of the opportunity to fail when you don't have to stack for the first time.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
And it really allows you to focus on making sure your ingredients are maced out correctly, like making sure that everything's the right temperature, like really slow down and focus on the basics.
Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast
All About Birthday Cake, featuring Cheryl Day and Bronwen Wyatt
I think if you don't jump directly into a complex baking project, it just gives you a lot more time to learn what you're doing without fearing that you're going to mess up something that's a little bit too complicated.