I'd love to be able to bake but ...
My cakes always burn
My cakes always collapse
I just don't have time
The thought of baking a cake can turn some otherwise rational human beings to jelly.
Some don't even make it past the reading the recipe, put off by terms such as:
Cream together the butter and sugar~ cream, who said anything about cream, there's no cream in the recipe
Fold in the flour ~ how on earth do you fold it, it's not paper?
Place on middle shelf of oven ~ Mines ovens only got 2 shelves, there is no middle?
For others the recipe is fine, it's the cooking part that doesn't go according to plan. Turn oven to 180C and cook for 25mins often ends up in overcooked cake with a hint of charcoal round the edges. (If you do suffer from burnt cake syndrome then read this article ~ it's geared towards cupcakes but the principle of the advice is the same and works just as well for bigger cakes.)
But baking doesn't have to be this way ...
When you start baking should be fun, easy and quick, and by quick I mean that within half an hour of thinking 'I want to make a cake' you can have a cake mixed, baked, out of the oven, ready to eat and still warm.
One of the best recipes to start with is the good old Victoria Sponge, it's simple, quick and pretty much infallable. Everyone has their own slight variations but the one I've used for years, and still use as a basis for many cake and cupcake recipes can be found here.
If you're still not sure then there are usually a few cake baking courses around, we certainly run a varitey at Fantasy Icing, from learning to bake to cupcake decorating classes ~ click here for details.
The main thing to remember is that, like a lot of things, you may not get it 100% right first time, and that's okay ..... after all, half the fun is eating the mistakes