Whether you’re a new baker or an experienced one, one look at these baking ingredients and you’ll see that even if all you have are these in your pantry, you can bake a cake, a cupcake, a cookie, or even a no-bake dessert with just these six basic baking ingredients.

Here are our picks as the most essential of all baking ingredients that let’s you bake anything without leaving the house:

1 All-Purpose Flour

The base structure of all baked goods is courtesy of flour. While not all baking recipes need flour, the most basic of recipes do use it. From the fluffiest cakes to moist and fudgy of brownies, flour is what provides the structure to most baked goods. Without this ingredient, your cakes can fall, sink, and even collapse under its weight.

[ArticleReco:{“articles”:[“17017”]}]

2 Baking Soda and Baking Powder

For the modern baker, baking soda and baking powder are chemical leaveners that can make the fluffiest cakes rise higher and taller. It’s easy to confuse how to use these two kinds of leaveners and for those recipes that use both, it’s important to know the difference: mixing these ingredients with a liquid activates it and so does the heat. However, baking soda needs an acidic ingredient to react with while baking powder just needs the liquid and the heat to make your cake rise to its fullest height.

[ArticleReco:{“articles”:[“20209″,”10427″,”2803”]}]

3 Sugar

Did you know that sugar is considered a wet ingredient? It’s true! Sugar is a wet ingredient, not a dry ingredient, because of its ability to attract and absorb moisture. Not only that, but it also melts into a semi-liquid state. While many people think it’s job is to just add sweetness to baked goods, sugar is also an ingredient that can determine whether your cake or cookie has a soft or a crisp texture, too.

[ArticleReco:{“articles”:[“17082″,”16966”]}]

4 Butter or Oil

While flour provides the structure, the baking powder and soda the rise and lift, and the sugar provides sweetness and some moisture, the butter or oil provides the main source of moisture for your baked goods. Otherwise known as the fat, butter and oil are the agent that helps do a number of things: it helps leaven your batter especially when well whipped, adds and locks in the moisture, and finally, adds flavor when you use butter to make your cake.

[ArticleReco:{“articles”:[“20297″,”20277″,”22070”]}]

5 Eggs

When you begin baking, you learn the value of knowing the sides of your eggs. Did you know that unless the size is specifically stated, all basic baking recipes will use large eggs as its standard size? This is because a small egg just doesn’t have enough volume as a large egg and it can matter since baking is a science. A change in ratios can affect your baked goods!

The size of your eggs is important in baking because eggs are your main binding ingredient. It helps emulsify the butter and oil and helps it combine well with the other ingredients as well as keep it all together. Without the eggs, there is usually an ingredient that you will have to use as a substitute to make up for its ability to keep the rest of the ingredients combined and not separate. There’s a reason why eggs are the ingredient between the wet and the dry ingredients.

[ArticleReco:{“articles”:[“17138″,”18361”]}]

6 Vanilla Extract

When it comes to flavors, the most basic of flavors is vanilla. We like to think of vanilla extract (or flavoring) as the salt of the baking world: it’s the universal seasoning of the baking world! Vanilla has a warm, sweet, and seductive aroma which matches well with almost any dish that it sweetens. No matter what flavor your dish is, you’ll find that vanilla extract will nonetheless play a part in making your dessert taste better.

[ArticleReco:{“articles”:[“18349”]}]

7 Favorite ingredients and flavors

While you can make any baked recipes with the six ingredients, you can’t make sure that the cake is to your taste if you don’t include your favorite ingredients. Not everyone loves a plain cake so for those who love other flavors, having these favorite ingredients and flavors in stock in your kitchen is a good idea. Love the taste of almond? Use almond extract together with vanilla! Crazy for nuts? Have some ready to chop and stir in! Can’t live without chocolate? Stock up on chocolate and cocoa powder! Whatever your favorite flavor is, keep it in stock so that no matter when the craving strikes, you can whip up a dessert that can satisfy it.

ALSO READ:

[ArticleReco:{“articles”:[“22168″,”22070″,”21710”]}]

***

Thinking about what to cook next? Join our Facebook group, Yummy Pinoy Cooking Club, to get more recipe ideas, share your own dishes, and find out what the rest of the community are making and eating!

Got your own version of the classic dishes? Pa-share naman! Get your recipe published on Yummy.ph by submitting your recipe here!