What do you need for Christmas baking? A few essential ingredients are needed to make delicious cakes: flour, leaveners, fat, liquid, sweeteners and natural flavourings. The flour provides the structure for all baked goods through proteins that interact with liquids to create gluten. The flours need leaveners that create chemical reactions in your dough, causing it to expand and rise to make them lighter. You also need some liquid and fats to combine all the ingredients in a dough. The flavour is all up to you - spices, chocolate, dried fruits, and nuts are there for you. Here's everything you need to buy on one shopping list. Christmas baking pantry checklist: Flours: All Purpose flour, almond flour, gluten-free flour Sugar and sweeteners: White sugar, brown sugar, icing sugar, agave, maple syrup, dates syrup Baking spices: Ground cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, cardamon, anise Nuts and dried fruits: Walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, dried apricots, prunes, dried cranberries, dates, raisins Leaveners: Yeast, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate - baking soda Fats and oils: Coconut oil, plant-based butter, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil Plant-based milk: Soy milk, almond milk, oat milk Cocoa and chocolate: Raw cacao, alkalised cacao, cocoa nibs, carob powder, dark chocolate Extracts and natural flavourings: Vanilla extract, orange extract, almond extract, orange zest, lemon zest Salt: Sea salt - a pinch of salt will not only enhance the flavour but also affect the tenderness of your cakes.
