Секрет идеальных кексов: пекари рекомендуют заменить масло и молоко на сливки и лимонад

Home baking can be enormously satisfying, but if you're new to the hobby, it can be a little daunting knowing where to begin. To ease into the process, scones are a good place to start as they're simple to make, delicious to eat, and can be easily adpated to cater for both sweet and savoury fans. Making the basic dough itself is incredibly straightforward, as the beauty of making scones is that all the ingredients are combined in one bowl, so it's just a case of throwing everything in, mixing it together and then cutting the scones out. But achieving a light and fluffy texture can be easier said than done. But according to baking experts, a simple ingredient swap is the secret to creating a lovely soft and light baked scone - and all you need is some cream and lemonade. While most scone recipes use the same basic ingredients of flour, caster sugar, milk and a beaten egg, swapping out butter and milk in favour of cream and lemonade instead can actually yield much better results. Using cold butter is generally advised in many recipes but this can be difficult to mix into your flour, particularly if you are doing it by hand. So to save time (and your arm muscles), it's recommended that cream is used in its place as this will not only easily combine with the flour, it will also make your scones deliciously soft. Cream contributes a wonderful richness to the bake and it can also result in a more moist and tender texture, as well as giving the scones a beautiful brown crust when baked. King Arthur Baking says: "Using heavy cream as a base, cream scones can feel like a morning indulgence. Ultra-tender and cake-like, they're softer than butter-based scones. Reason to love them: They're quick and easy to make and don't require working the fat into the dry ingredients." King Arthur Baking says if your recipe calls for 113g or butter and 113g of milk, for example, simply replace both of these ingredients with 227g of heavy cream instead. As for the lemonade, this is what will give your scones their lightness. The carbon dioxide in the drink acts as a leavening agent in a similar way to baking powder or yeast, and this helps to aerate the scones and make them rise, creating a lighter, fluffier texture. Plus it adds a nice hint of sweet lemon to the overall flavour. Food recipe website Taste.com.au says a combination of 125ml of thick cream and 125ml lemonade will achieve deliciously soft and sweet scones, and if you want to lean into the lemonade flavour, try serving with a dollop of lemon curd and cream instead of jam. It explains: "I really dislike rubbing butter into flour to make scones. There, I said it. The bench always seems to be the wrong height, my hands get tired, and it takes forever. All the planets aligned the day I discovered lemonade scones. "No pesky fridge-cold butter that refuses to yield to the flour. Instead, cream takes its place, adding the necessary fat plus tenderising the scones. "Milk gives way for lemonade, which not only provides liquid, but also flavour and, best of all, the bubbles in the lemonade aerate the dough, helping the scones rise evenly."