Top tips for baking with eggs

As well as creating healthy family meals, baking with eggs to make cakes and related foods couldnt be easier! It just takes a little know-how. Home baking is enjoying a renaissance at the moment and eggs are a key ingredient, adding colour, texture and flavour and often acting as the binding ingredient for the mixture. 

You don't need lots of fancy equipment or expensive ingredients to bake a cake with the kids or prepare a dessert for friends - and most baking recipes are easier and quicker to make than you might think!

When baking with eggs, always use eggs bearing the Lion mark, which guarantees that they have been produced to the highest standards of food safety. All Lion Quality eggs come from British hens vaccinated against salmonella, are fully traceable and have a 'best before' date on the shell as a guarantee of freshness.

How to separate eggs

A cake made with eggs

Some baking recipes call for the yolk and white of an egg to be separated. Follow these easy steps when separating eggs:

  1. Get two small bowls
  2. Crack the egg in half and tip the yolk into one half of the cracked egg (taking care to hold it over one of the bowls). The egg white will automatically fall into the bowl below. 
  3. By switching the egg yolk from one half of the cracked egg shell to the other, the rest of the egg white will fall into the bowl below. 
  4. Put the separated yolk into the other clean bowl.

For more detailed help, check out our page on how to separate eggs.

Cakes

  • Let the eggs come to room temperature before baking.
  • When you’re making sponge cakes, beat the eggs together in a jug and add to the butter and sugar mixture gradually, whisking well between additions.
  • If the mixture looks like it’s going to curdle, add a spoonful of the weighed flour and beat again until smooth.

Meringues

  • If you have any grease or oil in the bowl with the egg whites, they won’t whisk up. Similarly any egg yolk will have the same effect. Rinse the bowl out with boiling water first.
  • Line baking trays with non-stick baking parchment, this will peel away from the baked meringues easily.

Biscuits and pastries

  • Eggs act as a binder for biscuits, without them the mixture will be far too crumbly.  They also add flavour and texture, as well as extending shelf life. 
  • Whole eggs are used to glaze baked goods including biscuits and pastries as they contribute colour and shine during baking.

Bread

  • Eggs add colour and flavour to breads. They also help make the crust tender and add richness 
  • Some bread recipes call for eggs to be used as a wash for added colour.
  • Using more egg whites will help create a fluffy light mixture, while more yolks will create a more dense mixture with a richer flavour.

We have a whole bunch of delicious baking recipes for you to try, so why not visit one of the following pages for some inspiration.