Baking in the Heat

For all you homemakers out there who diligently bake even when the temperatures spike into the 90s and 100s, kudos. Of course, extra kudos for those who do so in a house without air conditioning.

Saturday I have three different cake orders due, and of course that means it’ll be in the mid-90s because everybody knows that buttercream’s best friend is heat. However I have ways to combat that and unfortunately it means compromising on flavor a bit. I do not, however, have ways to prevent the house from becoming an oven itself while baking in this heat we are expected to have.

When baking in hot weather, I usually leave the fan in the kitchen on all day with a window cracked open. Yes, I know this seems odd that on a hot day I’d have a window open, but in order for a fan to flow properly it needs a fresh source of air. Besides, after the kitchen hits above 85 degrees I don’t notice much of a difference. Another thing that helps is that my cake room that I store all my cakes in between frosting and delivering stays quite a bit cooler than the rest of the house thanks mostly to the fact that we have a very large maple tree in our front yard that keeps it shaded. That, and the door stays closed at all times… except when I need to open it to put in or take out a cake.

I also find it convenient to keep a tall glass of ice water with a straw in it on an out-of-the-way space on the counter to sip from without having to pick it up while working. Hey, anything to increase productivity is good, right? Sometimes if it is too unbearably hot I’ll put a box fan by the window and point it towards me. Another trick I use when decorating a cake in a hot room is that if I keep a gelled freezer pack next to my icing, I can put my hands on it to cool them off. You’d be surprised by how much heat your hands generate while squeezing a pastry bag. Okay, maybe you wouldn’t, but having a freezer pack will not only cool your hands off but start to cool you off too.

The only place I can’t help with is dishes. Unfortunately while doing dishes by hand (which when I have large baking projects requires a lot of washing in between batches) hot soapy water and hot rinse water are a must. One day, perhaps, I might have a plethora of beaters and bowls and maybe a minion or two to do the dishes for me. Of course, I’d hope at that point I also had air conditioning.