- Baking shows abound.

Some of us watch because we love to bake.

Some of us watch because we love to watch others bake.

But watch, we do.

Because, well, it's just fun.

The love of baking and the love of watching others bake got us to wondering, who's baking in The Basin?

I'm Becky Ferguson, and this is One Question.

Whether you've always wanted to know how to make a striped cake, a perfect sourdough loaf or decorate fancy cookies or if you just like watching others do those things, this is the episode for you.

There are an abundance of home bakers in west Texas.

Or cottage law bakers in the parlance of Texas law.

They bake for love, they bake for profit, they bake for fun.

So sit back and enjoy Who's Baking In The Basin.

- I'm talking to Sarah with, I'd Rather Bake.

Cake baker and decorator extraordinaire.

Cookie baker cupcake baker, cake pop baker.

But today we're going to do a cake.

- Yeah.

So tell me what, what we're doing.

- So today I have chosen, probably my most popular cake which is a strawberry cake.

And it's really, really good.

It's really moist.

And so I'm going to show you how to stack a cake, a three layer cake.

And this is probably one of the most important things that you do with a cake is to level it.

I have a fancy cake cutter, but they have, you know, they have Wilton ones for eight, nine dollars.

And if you're just a every once in a while baker, do it.

- That would be good.

- This is, this just helps me because I do a lot of cakes and I just do it really fast and I cut this off.

- So you're doing that so that it'll have a flat top.

- Yes, because it is... - So it doesn't mound.

- Yes.

And you, you know, it's hard to decorate and frost a cake when it's not level.

I'm gonna do the same thing.

And so all of these are going to be the same height the same, and I'm going to put a little frosting on there.

- [Becky] So that's going to be your glue.

It holds your cake down.

- That's my glue.

That's going to hold it.

And then I'm going to take my first layer I'm going to center it in there.

Kind of push it down.

So then we just do that.

I use an offset spatula to do this.

- And by that you mean, - So it's, you know, it's slanted a little bit.

- Yeah, okay.

- And then I'll show you what I use for that other one.

But on the finished.

So on the third layer.

- Okay.

You're gonna flip it.

- I'm gonna flip it upside down.

and you can always like get down and look.

Just to kind of do the level, you know, the level check.

And it's I mean, I know it's level because I leveled it.

So then we're going to do what they call a crumb coat.

And the reason why you do this is so when you do a final coat of frosting, you don't see crumbs.

And that's another benefit of having a cold cake is you'll get less crumbs with a cold cake.

And then I stick this in the freezer for 10 minutes.

- [Becky] Okay.

- Okay, so now back to the frosting.

So you can see it's got bubbles.

Now, when you try and put that on a cake, you're never going to get a flat, smooth.

- Okay, all right.

- All right?

So you take your rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, and you just mix it and you just get those air bubbles out.

Just mix it for a good like minute or so.

And it'll make a huge difference.

- [Becky] Interesting.

- Okay.

So now what I'm going to do is I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw some of this on there and then I'm gonna take this spatula and I'm gonna go around - And tell us while you're doing the rest of the sides, you're opening a bakery here shortly, so tell us a little bit about that.

Yes, yes so that is currently under construction.

We're going to have, you know, baked goods every day.

I'm really excited to teach.

That's probably my passion is teaching.

- I love that.

- Okay, so here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna put my hand up here at about 12 o'clock.

- [Becky] Okay.

- And the reason I do that is because that will give me one - One rotation.

- One rotation.

- Okay.

- Okay, so I'm going to start.

So I've moved my hand over here.

I'm going to start right here and just gently hold the comb.

Okay, so now I'm gonna go stick this in the freezer.

- Okay.

- For 10 minutes.

- Okay.

- And then we do the stripes on it.

- Okay.

- Out of the freezer.

So now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go and I'm gonna fill in these.

Okay.

Now we're going to take our straight edge.

- [Becky] Now the magic.

- Now the magic.

Okay, same thing.

Just grab it so we can do one turn and just lightly press against it.

I'm gonna just keep going.

And you, you do have to somewhat work kind of quick - Because the part that's frozen you don't want to go unfrozen.

- Yeah.

So you want to try and keep the, you know you want to make sure that you can see that it's a, a striped cake.

And I'm really just barely pushing it up against, - Uh huh.

- because I don't want to scrape off the, the white part.

- Right.

Gosh, it's so pretty.

It's just magical.

- Okay.

- [Becky] Beautiful.

That's just amazing.

- Okay, so I'm gonna stop right there.

And then you have this.

And like I said, I'm just going to pull this in.

And then I have my ganache that I have put into this little squeeze bottle.

It just makes it so much easier to apply.

I've seen a lot of people, they spoon it on.

- Uh huh.

- I think this is just as easy, so.

- Okay.

- So if you have a cold cake, which this is a cold cake I could technically stick this back in for like five minutes to get it really cold, but this isn't super hot.

So I'm just gonna start and I'm gonna, I'm literally gonna put the tip of it on the thing.

And I am gonna barely squeeze.

But I, the, the nozzle of my bottle is literally sitting on top of the cake, and I'm just barely squeezing.

- [Becky] And ganache will get hard.

Just like chocolate gets hard.

- [Sarah] It does, yes.

It gets, it doesn't get hard to where it's like going to hurt your teeth.

- [Becky] Right, right.

- [Sarah] It just, it will kind of solidify a little bit.

- [Becky] Like a candy bar.

- [Sarah] Yeah.

- That is so beautiful.

- Thank you.

It is so fun to do.

And you know, everybody loves cake.

Everybody loves a pretty cake.

- Yes.

Cause first you eat with your eyes.

- That's true.

And it's just special, you know, it's just, Okay?

- Sarah that's so beautiful.

- So then what I'm gonna do - Okay then what do we do?

- I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do it on the top.

So I'm going to take this off and I'm gonna pour some on top.

- [Becky] Get your offset again.

Offset spatula.

- [Sarah] Get my offset off set.

And I'm just gonna kinda stir this around.

Kinda like that.

Then I'll add a little bit more.

And you see you've got that, all of that covered up.

Like that.

And then you see, so the cake is cold.

You can see that cause it's getting hard real fast.

So I'm just going to take this and I'm just going to go like this.

- [Becky] Oh, more design.

- [Sarah] Yeah, I mean, you don't have to because I mean, it's totally up to you.

- [Becky] It's so pretty!

It's so pretty.

- [Sarah] And it's really not hard.

So there's that.

- [Becky] You're the best.

It's beautiful.

I just love it.

Thank you so much for showing us how to do this.

- You're welcome.

See that wasn't so hard, right?

- It certainly wasn't hard to watch.

I'm visiting with Lindsay Martin of Loaves-_Midland.

And you're going to show us how you do your yummy sourdough bread.

- Yes.

- So start us from the start.

- So when I'm starting to make a specifically these classic loaves, I take some of my starter first thing in the morning and you start mixing it with your flour and your water and your starter and you mix it all together.

So when we first mixed it, it was lumpy.

The gluten strands hadn't had any chance to form.

So you let it sit for an hour.

And then after that we kind of wake it back up and you do a little salt water bath is what I like to call it.

And that's when I add my salt and my cold water.

And then we just start this slow process of folds.

So this has been sitting here for two hours and you can see the fermentation is happening with these bubbles that are forming in it and how smooth this dough is.

It's just really happy is what I like to call it.

It's stretchable.

It's really pliable.

A lot of folks talk about like, the window pane test of like, how thin can you get it?

You can like almost see through it before it starts to tear, cause what you're doing when it's been sitting here for all these hours is forming your gluten strands.

So this has gone from that really rough mix initially into this nice, smooth dough that again in just a few minutes when we go to dump it out and we'll portion them out we'll see the fermentation that has then happened over the course of three hours of it sitting here.

There's all these little tiny air pockets in here and you have to be so, so gentle, cause you don't want to literally like burst your little air pockets.

- [Becky] Ah.

- Mm hmm, so cause you want them to be there so that in the end, again, here they are.

They're just little tiny ones.

So you have to be pretty gentle with it.

It's not about rough housing it really.

And this one again, it's ready.

This one in our last set of stretch and folds which you do every 30 minutes just like what we did here.

We added in some cheddar and jalapeno to this one.

So you can see them hiding in there.

- [Becky] Uh huh.

And that's something that's fun because it all has the same base.

- [Becky] Smells so good, yes.

- [Lindsay] Yep, with your classic sourdough, all have their same base but you can add in all sorts of sweet treats.

- [Becky] Of yummy things.

Okay, so what, what do we do now?

- We are gonna dump this out and we're gonna start sectioning them out into their own little loaves.

So we're gonna dump this out and when we get it nice and dumped out, you can see as I'm cutting into this, all these air pockets that have formed again during this process.

So sourdough, it's not like it's it's just a lot of scheduling - Uh huh.

- and time.

You just have to be patient and you'll get great results but it just takes a lot of time.

But you can see all these fermentation pockets that have developed over the hours that it's just been slowly sitting there doing its thing.

And that's what's gonna give us that really nice, open, light, fluffy crumb that everyone loves about your nice crunchy - Crunchy bread.

- Mm hmm, exactly.

So we're gonna stretch them out.

- [Becky] Okay.

- [Lindsay] Fold them up.

We want them to be nice and tight.

But again, you'll see, I'm not like overly kneading this.

I'm just stretching it and tucking it in.

- [Becky] And turning it into a ball.

- [Lindsay] Mm hmm, turning it into a ball.

And then we just want it nice and tight.

Cause that will help in the baking process.

And as it goes into the fridge to sit overnight.

So in the morning that'll have our nice - [Becky] It's so pretty.

- [Lindsay] I know.

- [Becky] I love that.

- So our nice little crust.

And this is just gonna sit here and we just want to let it have a chance to relax.

- So it's just gonna sit here on the counter.

- It's just gonna sit here, just for a few minutes.

- Okay.

So, you have them, we've made, you've made them into loaves.

- Yep.

- There was no we about it, it was you.

And so now what do you do?

- So they're gonna go in the fridge overnight.

They're gonna sit in here and prove.

And there are many different things, if you're at home and you're baking you don't have these little Banneton baskets.

You can buy them all over the place.

You can always use like a colander with a tea towel and flour, - Okay.

- But temperature regulation, moisture regulation to have a proving basket either like this, or again, made with wicker.

It just does a lot in your overall oven spring the next day.

So right now we're just gonna flour these again.

We're gonna put them into their final little rest where they will sit overnight.

I am just stitching this together.

This is something, not necessary but I think it helps hold up the structure of your loaf when you go to pop it in the oven the next day.

So it's gonna be about this size.

It'll grow a little bit, but it'll pretty much stay this size through the night.

And then we'll cover them up with a little tea towel and squeeze them into the fridge.

And that's where they will stay - [Becky] Til tomorrow.

- Til tomorrow morning.

With flour, they had another chance.

It's again, all just about letting it rest, not causing any shock.

Again, all these terms have, because everyone talks about this.

I mean, I understand it is very much so a living organism with your yeast.

So you gotta be careful with it.

It can be temperamental, but I think once you get the hang of it and you started doing that.

- Yeah, I can tell it's second nature to you.

- Mm hmm, exactly.

- Do you put one on each one or just, no, several of them?

- I like to try and tuck them in as much as I can together.

And as you pull out your loaves the last step is tossing them out onto a tea towel or onto the counter.

When the oven's ready, these are nice and hot, we get some corn meal on the bottom so they don't stick, and then you score it.

So I'm going to bring over our pre-cooked loaves here, that we baked this morning.

So these ones went into the fridge yesterday.

- Oh, those are beautiful.

Oh my gosh.

- So these two went into the fridge yesterday came out this morning and this is called your score.

So these ones, - [Becky] So it's just a cut, with a knife - Yep, with a little lathe.

I have a little tool.

You pop these into the oven.

You need to give him a little cut.

- Okay, so this is like a little knife with a razor blade on it.

Yes, that's exactly what it is, mm hmm.

- [Becky] Wow.

- Because with any bread, the vast majority of them they are going to burst and tear at the weakest point.

Cause you have all that yeast that's been building up.

It's ready to rise.

So unless you tell it where to tear, it's going to do it on its own.

- [Becky] Okay, so you're saying I want it here, I want it crisscross.

- So, I want it right down here.

And I want a crisscross right here.

That's when you can get your fun little designs and different things like that, depending on how deep you're cutting into it.

When you pull it out of the oven, again - There it is.

- Leave it alone.

It's all about waiting.

It cooks for about an hour.

Come in, take the lid off an hour later, take a peek.

And they're generally good to go.

Cause you can hear it.

It's nice and crisp on the outside.

- [Becky] Oh my gosh.

- [Lindsay] Yep.

It's nice and crisp on the bottom.

- [Becky] That's just so yummy.

- And then the inside, I guess we're all about to find out together.

Should have that again, - [Becky] Okay, yep, all those bubbles.

- All those little pockets of fermentation in here, it's just a happy, you can feel it.

It springs back nicely.

It was well proved.

Had enough time.

It has a little ear.

That's what they call it.

All these funny little terms.

But it's nice and crispy on the bottom, - Oh my gosh.

- crunchy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside.

Flour, water salt.

Isn't that wild?

Science.

- And patience.

- Patience, yes - And wait, and don't peak and there's some rules.

- Uh huh, lots of waiting.

A lot of patience, is mostly what sourdough comes down to.

Lots of waiting and patience.

But I think worth it.

- [Becky] I think it is too.

I'm visiting with RaeAnne Phillips of Glittered Antler Cookie Company.

And she's going to show us how she works miracles on cookies to turn them into works of art.

So tell us what we have here and tell us what you're about to do.

- So first we outline - And that's what your, what is this that you're using that's in the tube?

- This is royal icing.

This is, I work with two different consistencies.

Some people work with one.

I prefer two.

A thicker consistency to outline my cookies and then a thinner one to fill it in.

- Okay.

- So I try not to touch my cookies as much as I can.

- So, you've got your outline here.

So now what are you gonna do?

You've done it with sort of a a thick consistency royal frosting.

You've done a tiny little outline.

- Uh huh, so now I will just fill in the cookies.

- So this is - [RaeAnne] This is a flooding consistency.

- [Becky] But it's the same recipe.

It's just more watery.

- [RaeAnne] Yes, just more water.

It's watered down.

So it's thinner and it will flood, it will - [Becky] Flood the cookie, like you said.

- It will.

My goal is, and not all the time, is to get this flood consistency to actually come together without me having to touch it.

- Okay, so right now you're having to move it around, but if it was a slightly more watery, it would just go ahead and go into that outline.

- Yes, uh huh.

- [Becky] And the outline, I guess, acts as a dam.

- [RaeAnne] Yes, uh huh.

- [Becky] It keeps it from spilling over.

- It does, yeah.

So this, I try to get it a little bit thinner than this, but not too thin because if you get it too thin then it will either run over the cookie or it will actually dip in your cookie.

So the, the cookie will pull the moisture out of it and, and it will sink.

- Okay, so you get this layer on and then what do you do after that?

Do you let them sit for a while?

- I will put them in front of a fan.

The fan will help crust it over for my next layer.

And also it helps to shine.

It gives it a really nice shine, so.

- The fan does?

- Mm hmm, if you air-dry them they look very dull.

But if you put them in front of the fan or you can use a dehydrator which is what I actually have my cookies stored in.

I just don't have, I'm not using the actual dehydrator part of it.

But if you do that, they'll have a nice a really nice shine to them.

- Interesting.

Oh they do have a little bit of a shine.

- Mm hmm.

- Okay.

So now what are you going to do?

- I use a projector, which is what I will use.

I use this for all of, all of my writing and the reason why I use it is because I like uniform.

I like every single cookie to look the same.

Every initial, every part of it.

I want it to look just the same.

I'll plug my projector into my phone.

- [Becky] Amazing.

- And line it right up to as close as I can possibly get it to the outline of the cookie.

And I will just follow the outline.

This consistency is about as perfect as I could possibly get it to be able to write.

- Because it's not running at all?

- It's not too thick.

It's not too thick, It's not too thin and it's coming out smoothly.

- So you operate under the Texas cottage law.

Is that correct?

- Mm hmm, I do.

- And what does that mean?

- I, it just means I cannot ship your cookies.

I can only sell out of, well, I can, I can only sell out of my house or I can do, actually do markets now.

I take that back.

They did pass a law last year that you can sell anywhere.

It used to be you could only sell wherever you made the cookies out of.

But they changed that.

So you can do pop-up shops, you know, locally we have a bunch of different, we have farmer's markets.

We have all of those downtown events where you can go shopping.

So you can actually sell cookies quite a bit of places now.

So for the carriages, I want to give them a little bit of character.

- [Becky] How cute.

- Instead of just a straight top.

So what I do for this kind of set is I actually will use my projector again.

- Who would have thought a phone would be an instrument for cookie decorating?

I love that.

- My phone is just the easiest way for me to do all of those things.

So every time I get started, I pinch off my tip just to get any crust off of it.

And so sometimes your icing will make it curl.

- Right.

- So I try to straighten it out as much as I can.

And then I just follow the outline.

Now the trick to this layering of cookie or icing is actually to not let your bottom layer dry all the way.

- [Becky] Oh really?

Why is that?

- If you let it dry all of the way you will create something called a crater and it will divot your cookie.

- When you put the second layer on?

- Mm hmm, and it will not be smooth.

- [Becky] Oh.

- So by doing it while the bottom one is still a little, it still has moisture in it, which is why I use the fans to give it a hard, a crust on the top layer so that I can actually touch the cookie with my icing bag and not - [Becky] Go through.

- Uh huh, and not tear up the cookie.

But this will, we like in the cookie world we call it a nice puff.

- [Becky] Okay.

- [RaeAnne] So that is your goal when you are, - [Becky] So it kind of domes.

- [RaeAnne] Yes.

- [Becky] Is what's happening when you do that.

- [RaeAnne] Mm hmm.

- [Becky] Okay.

All right, so your outline's here and then you're coming back with the flood.

- [RaeAnne] Mm hmm.

- [Becky] Oh my gosh.

That is so pretty.

And by doing it like, you know, with with a crusted undertone, then you will, it will stay that puffy.

It will not sink in.

- It won't sink and become part of the.

- And I'll just immediately put it underneath the fan.

- [Becky] But how do, okay, so you made these and you did the first layer and then you put them under the fan, but you don't let that completely dry.

So how long did they sit there at the fan?

Oh, probably like 15 minutes.

- Okay.

- It just depends on, you know how fast you need to work.

- It's just beautiful.

So pretty.

- This is for a wedding.

- These are beautiful.

- [RaeAnne] The cakes, I actually used a template so that they would, every one of them would look exactly the same with my projector.

- [Becky] Okay, the template with your projector.

- Mm hmm, so I just did the same thing with that.

Also with these "S"s you can see that they didn't they didn't dip in.

They're perfect, they're puffy.

And that's because the bottom layer was not dried.

- [Becky] These are just incredible.

- [RaeAnne] Thank you.

- [Becky] And they travel well, I guess, if somebody is taking them out of town or do you have to pack them?

- They do.

So, I will package them individually and I will seal them in their own little bags.

And that keeps them fresh for up to two weeks.

- Ah, so your cookies are soft because your your cookies are pretty thick.

- They are, they are rolled to a five 16th of an inch.

- Okay.

And you've got like special equipment, so that they're all exactly the same.

- Yes, yes.

I have two little guides that I roll on top of to make every cookie the same thickness.

They're cooked on the same, I use dark sheets.

That's personal preference.

It's just what I started with.

And so that's what I continue with.

- And then do you put anything on top of it?

- I put parchment, I cook with parchment paper and they're cooked for the same amount of time every, for five years.

- I'm going to give it the taste test.

- Okay, go ahead.

- Almond?

- Uh huh.

- Mm hmm.

These really are delicious and they're not super soft but they're not like crackly crispy.

That is really delicious.

- They're browned.

In my opinion, the browning, just a slight brown of the bottom really gives it the flavor.

- This is just delicious.

Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- I appreciate you.

- Our art this evening is appropriately of the edible variety.

We bring you cakes by I'd Rather Bake.

Breads of Loaves Midland.

And cookies from Glittered Antler Cookie Company.

Enjoy.

(orchestral music) Thank you for joining us for One Question.

We will be back each Saturday at 4:30 where we will ask the questions you want to know of the people who know.

Other ways to watch One Question include Basin PBS, Facebook, Passport and YouTube.

If you have a question send it to us at onequestion@basinpbs.org I'm Becky Ferguson.

Good night.

(orchestral music)