Boutique Wedding Cakes - Victoria Glass - E-Book

Boutique Wedding Cakes E-Book

Victoria Glass

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Beschreibung

An elegant wedding cake is the perfect finale to a wedding breakfast. Whether you are making a cake for your own wedding or for a friend or relative as a thoughtful gift, Boutique Wedding Cakes will show how fabulous cakes are within everyone's reach. Expert baker and sugar-crafter Victoria Glass guides you through the process - from choosing the perfect cake, baking and decorating, how to deliver and present the cake, as well as adapting the recipes to guest numbers. The Basic Techniques teach you how to achieve professional-looking results and step-by-step photography demonstrates clearly how to assemble your spectacular-looking cake. As well as practical advice there are 19 stunning designs for you to follow, ranging from Classic Elegance to cakes with A Splash of Colour, each accompanied by their own cake recipe - from a traditional fruit cake to a green tea and ginger sponge. Whatever your taste, you can create an unforgettable wedding cake that is truly unique to you - whatever your baking ability and whatever your budget.

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boutique

wedding cakes

boutique

wedding cakes

bake and decorate beautiful cakes at home

Victoria Glass

photography by Laura Forrester

Designers Luis Peral and Barbara Zuñiga

Editor Rebecca Woods

Head of Production Patricia Harrington

Art Director Leslie Harrington

Editorial Director Julia Charles

Stylists Luis Peral and Victoria Glass

Indexer Hilary Bird

First published in 2012

by Ryland Peters & Small

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

London WC1R 4BW

and

519 Broadway, 5th Floor

New York, NY 10012

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Victoria Glass 2012

Design and photographs

© Ryland Peters & Small 2012

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

eISBN: 978 1 84975 678 5

ISBN 978 1 84975 263 3

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

US Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data has been applied for.

Printed in China

• All spoon measurements are level unless otherwise specified.

• Use either metric or imperial/cup measurements, do not use a combination of both.

• All eggs are large (UK) or extra large (US), unless otherwise specified. It is recommended that free-range, organic eggs be used whenever possible.

• Ovens should be preheated to the specified temperatures. All ovens work slightly differently. We recommend using an oven thermometer and suggest you consult the maker’s handbook for any special instructions, particularly if you are cooking in a fan-assisted/convection oven, as you will need to adjust temperatures according to the manufacturer’s instructions

• Philadelphia (full-fat, not the reduced fat variety) has been specified for icings as this is the only brand I have found which doesn’t turn to liquid when whisked with an electric hand whisk.

contents

introduction

how to use this book

choosing your cake

getting organized

getting it there

why things go wrong…

essential recipes & techniques

royal icing

marzipan

modelling chocolate

lining cake pans

how to level a cake

how to slice a cake

dying sugar paste

covering a cake drum

preparing a cake for icing

covering a cake with marzipan

covering a cake with modelling chocolate

covering a cake with sugar paste

filling and covering small cakes

rodding and stacking a cake

attaching a ribbon

making paper piping bags

piping techniques

classic elegance

Broadway Melody

Grace Kelly

White on White

Versailles

Antique Lace

chic & sophisticated

Royal Ballet

Victoriana

Film Noir

Midnight Lotus

Art Nouveau

a splash of colour

Something Borrowed…

Vintage Rose

Love Birds

Brighton Rock

Jade Garden

changing seasons

Spring Flowers

Summer Fete

Autumn Hedgerow

Winter Wonderland

quantity charts

stockists

index

credits & acknowledgments

introduction

The wedding cake offers you the perfect opportunity to showcase the style and personality of the couple it’s celebrating, whether that’s bold and distinctive, classic and elegant or a reflection of the bride and groom’s personal obsession with the family tartan. Whatever design path you choose, you can always throw a few surprises into the mix. This book provides you with a deliciously varied and exciting range of flavours, from timeless sponges to indulgent and unique combinations. All recipes include quantity charts for different sized and shaped pans at the back of the book. This means that you can pick and choose both the flavours and size of your cakes to suit your taste, as well as use the cake recipes for other occasions once the wedding cake has been baked, decorated, sliced and, finally, eaten.

The cake is an important focal point at a wedding reception, creating an eye-catching centrepiece for the day. But just because a wedding cake, with all its weighty symbolism of union, prosperity and fertility, is traditional, it doesn’t mean the design or flavour has to be.

I have carefully paired each showcased design with a different and fitting recipe, but these pairings are merely suggestions. There is absolutely no reason to follow my lead. In fact, I actively encourage you to forge your own flavour path and pick and choose recipes according to your own taste and considerations. Light, citrusy notes may be preferable for a date in the middle of June, whereas an indulgent Black Forest cake can work wonders to warm the chill of a cold, November night.

Personally, I always favour serving the cake as dessert as it is the perfect way to be both economical and indulgent. So often, the cake gets cut and wheeled out at about 10 o’clock, when guests have already eaten a three-course meal and drunk enough champagne to launch a fleet. This way, your guests won’t be too stuffed to eat it and your delicious efforts are guaranteed to be better remembered, as well as enjoyed. If, on the other hand, the cake is going to be served late in the evening with coffee, make a note of the dessert choice to avoid any flavour repetition – a lemon cake will seem less enticing after a lemon tart.

You needn’t feel that you should stick to just one recipe – the bride and groom may have incompatible tastes when it comes to cake and you may need to cater for specific dietary requirements. Whatever the reason for opting for more than one cake flavour, be it necessity, gluttony or indecision, guests will certainly be grateful to be offered a choice.

Years ago, I made a wedding cake in the under-equipped kitchen of a holiday rental cottage as a gift for a friend. I had brought my own pans, rolling pin and piping nozzles, but nothing else. I had no measuring scales, electric whisks or spatulas and had to mix the cake batter in a saucepan, as the cottage didn’t have a single mixing bowl. The only measuring tools I had were a couple of tablespoons, teaspoons and a vintage Pyrex jug. Although this situation could never be described as ideal, it certainly proved to me that you don’t need state-of-the-art facilities to get the job done and done well. Although flashy electric mixers and digital scales will always make the job easier and quicker, you’ll be amazed at what can be achieved with little or no expensive or specialized tools. Specific equipment is needed for some of the cake designs in this book, but others require little more than what you’ll find already in the back of your kitchen cupboards. If you honestly assess your own levels of skill and confidence before starting your cake, you shouldn’t find too many bumps in the road. An optimistic, gung-ho spirit will serve you just as well as any fashionable kitchen gadgets.

Now, deep breath, shoulders back, and pop on your pinny. You’re about to make an exquisitely beautiful and delicious wedding cake.

how to use this book

My aim is to de-mystify tricks of the trade and help guide you, while avoiding being too prescriptive. Although I offer you design and flavour pairings, there is still plenty of room for the cake you create to reflect your personal creativity. This is especially important to bear in mind should anything not go entirely to plan. If your icing skills aren’t quite as flawless as you had hoped, or your sugar flowers not quite as neat as nature’s, there is no need to feel deflated or disappointed in yourself. For the best results, follow my guide to assessing the kind of baker you are on pages 10–11, so that you can steer away from any projects that may lead to a nervous breakdown. Everyone is different. We approach work differently, set differing timetables and deal with stress differently, so just work out what fits you best. The more you enjoy working on this project, the more likely you are to succeed and be proud of the results.

I have carefully paired each cake design with a flavour that appropriately reflects the style. Colourful, feminine designs, perfect for spring and summer, have been matched with light and fresh flavours; Jade Garden makes a perfect marriage with orange and polenta cake, while Brighton Rock is an ideal match for peanut butter and chocolate chip’s nostalgic and genial charm. I have paired formal cakes with classic flavours, and designs best suited to autumn or winter and evening receptions with richer confections. Designs coated with indulgent chocolate instead of sugar paste naturally lend themselves to dessert, so I have paired them with cakes which make for particularly delicious desserts. Midnight Lotus is matched with a gloriously decadent chocolate rum truffle torte and Royal Ballet’s white chocolate and cardamom cake makes a delicious end to any meal.

Each pairing gives the recipe for a single tier in a specific size on the main page, with a variety of quantities and oven times for alternative sized cakes and shapes at the back of the book. Although the recipe shows only the ingredients quantities for a single tier, the decorating ingredients are given for all three tiers. Please bear in mind that these quantities are approximates only, as the amount of sugar flowers or chocolate decorations you will need will depend on the size of the cakes you make, and so it follows that the quantity of floristry paste, sugar paste or modelling chocolate used for decorations is also dependent on cake size. There is a chart for working out the quantities for all cake and cake drum coverings at the back of the book, so you will know exactly how much sugarpaste, modelling chocolate or marzipan you will need to cover the cake sizes and shapes you have chosen.

A few notes on baking… Please do not mix and match with the measurements for metric and imperial. Choose either metric (grams) or imperial (ounces and cups) for the best results. I would advise against making enough cake mixture for all three (or more, if you wish) tiers in one go. You will struggle to fit in the sheer volume of cake batter in most mixing bowls and the arms of most electric whisks will be too short to reach the bottom of the mixture, without creating an awful mess. You may also find that you have only enough oven space for specific sized cakes at a time, so pop your empty cake pans in a cold oven before you begin, to work out the most sensible use of your space and time. Prepared cake batter should not be left to sit about in a bowl while the rest is cooking – it must be cooked immediately or the raising agents will start working before it is baked and affect the rise.

You can, of course, choose to make more than one flavour. Simply find the recipes with methods on the main pages and follow the ingredients charts at the back for your desired cake pan sizes. For example, you could follow the recipe for a 15-cm/6-inch fruit-cake, a 20-cm/8-inch chocolate fudge cake and a 25-cm/10-inch green tea cake. There is a guide in the back of the book for working out portion numbers, so you can calculate the cake size you will need to make for the number of guests you are catering for.

All the recipes for essential cake decorating can be found at the front of the book for ease, so that everything you need to keep coming back to, such as royal icing and modelling chocolate, can be found in the same section. This is also true of the basic tutorial section, which leads you through a comprehensive ‘how to’ guide for everything from lining a cake pan to levelling, filling, covering, rodding and stacking. I also offer some specific technical guidance on piping, from how to hold a piping bag to how to control pressure. Read the front section carefully before embarking on a specific design project, so that you are properly armed with the right information and skills for success.

choosing your cake

There is no longer such a thing as a typical wedding, so why should there be a typical cake? The wedding style should be carefully considered to ensure the cake supports it and makes the right impact. The season of the wedding date is also important for design. Feminine florals in pastel colours effortlessly match up with spring and summer weddings, whereas rich, opulent colours and accents of gold are stunning for autumn or winter nuptials. More formal weddings naturally suit clean lines and sophisticated styles, such as Art Nouveau or Antique Lace, whereas laid-back, casual garden weddings lend themselves beautifully to more convivial designs, such as Spring Flowers or Vintage Rose. The number of guests can also be an important criterion. An intimate wedding would be the perfect setting for miniature cakes, such as those in the Film Noir and Something Borrowed… designs, but would be painstaking to achieve for a guest list of 200.

Of course colour schemes, themes, time of year and personal style will be leading factors in deciding how the cake should look, but when it comes to making a wedding cake, choosing the right design isn’t just a matter of flicking through pictures and choosing your favourite. There are some practicalities you will need to consider first.

A PERFECT FINISH

Most people tend to think that the simpler the design, the easier. This is certainly true if you are well practised in covering and stacking cakes, but for those with less experience, creating a professional-looking smooth finish can be difficult to achieve. Cracks, fingernail marks and billowing bottoms are just a few of the common mistakes made by inexperienced bakers. Following my guide to covering cakes on pages 28–31 will stand you in good stead, but it might be prudent to be a little flexible with your final design. A thicker ribbon and a few extra flowers can hide all manner of sins. But please don’t be too hard on yourself if you need to rely on a little extra camouflage, I promise you that nobody will notice and everyone will be utterly impressed by all that you have achieved.

NUMBER OF GUESTS

The number of guests will affect the size of the cake you need to make, as will the decision about whether to serve the cake as dessert or with coffee later in the evening. A coffee portion is traditionally 2.5 cm/1 inch squared and a dessert portion is three times that size – or more, if you ask the venue staff or designated cake cutter to be more generous. It’s also important to consider whether the bride and groom want to go down the traditional route of saving the top tier for their first anniversary, the christening/naming ceremony of their first child or to send to guests who are unable to attend on the day. If they do choose to save the top tier (see page 10), aside from making sure the rest of the cake will be big enough to feed the whole party, it is usually best to stick with tradition again and opt for a fruitcake as it can be preserved for longer.

I have deliberately chosen to stick to three-tiered designs in this book because it is the largest number of tiers you can stack and deliver in one piece. Even those creative and brave enough to make a DIY wedding cake will, I’m sure, feel less enthused by the idea of assembling the cake on the morning of the wedding. You should be getting your glad rags on, not getting your hands sticky.

If the wedding party is so large that even the largest three tiered cake won’t suffice, I suggest you opt to make extra cutting cakes. Cutting cakes are large extra cakes, iced, but not decorated, that are not set up for display, but instead are sent straight to the kitchen for cutting. This makes particularly good sense if the cake is being served as dessert, as the kitchen staff can get a head start in prepping for service and the cake can be displayed in the reception hall for longer before it needs to be taken away to be sliced. Just ensure that if the cakes are cut early, they are covered until just before serving, to avoid all your hard work from drying out.

Having said that, I’m not interested in quashing anyone’s zeal or ambitions. If you want to take on the challenge of a larger number of tiers, by all means go for it. Choose a design that doesn’t spill over the tier edges and follow the guide for rodding all but the top tier. But please do not attempt delivery of the cake already fully stacked, as the likelihood of it surviving the journey intact will be left entirely to chance. Instead, take a piping bag of royal icing and a palette knife with you to the venue and stack the cakes on site.

A Guide To Storing Your Top Tier

If the top tier is to be saved, it is best to opt for a traditional, boozy fruitcake, which can be kept for a couple of years and even up to five, if stored correctly. (You can keep other cakes for up to three months in the freezer, but the flavours may diminish.) Wrap the cake (board included) very tightly in several layers of cling film/plastic wrap, put it in a plastic freezer box and freeze until needed. When required, defrost the cake and carefully remove the icing and marzipan with a sharp knife. Feed the cake with a little alcohol (dark rum or brandy), let the cake absorb its drink and then re-ice it. You can eat the defrosted top tier with the original marzipan and icing, but new icing will freshen up the look of the cake.

FLAVOURS

This book suggests natural pairings suitable for specific wedding styles and seasons. Although the flavour matches proffered are well thought out and sympathetic to each design, they are suggestions only and should not be seen as rigid or dictatorial. In terms of flavour, you must follow your own taste, and that may involve more than one. Most couples I work with are keen to offer their guests a choice, but if you do opt for a different flavour for every tier, it’s important to think about how many people each tier will serve.

If you want an equal number of servings of each flavour, it is best to stick with two cake flavour options. If the top and middle tiers are one flavour and the base another, this will equate to roughly half and half in terms of the number of portions. This is a particularly sociable option if you are serving your cake as dessert, as guests tend to cut their slices in half and swap one half for half of another guest’s alternative flavour.

You can also opt for a nod to tradition by choosing a fruitcake top tier. Another sensible option for the smallest tier is to choose a cake recipe that will cater for any guests with special dietary requirements, such as gluten, dairy or nut allergies. Alternatively, you can create an ultra special and indulgent flavour to be served exclusively to the top table, while keeping costs down with the type of cake chosen for the rest of your guests – just don’t be surprised if a few envious glances are flashed in the top table’s direction.

THE CUTTING OF THE CAKE

Don’t forget to consider whether the cutting of the cake is an important moment to the bride and groom. It is a classic photo opportunity that most couples have included in their wedding albums. Traditionally, the couple hold the knife together and make the first cut in the base tier of their cake.

Cupcakes and miniature cakes are wonderful in that the portioning has already been done, so the cakes can be displayed until just moments before they are served. But, if you do opt for cupcakes or miniatures, the cutting of the cake moment will change. Some couples, for this reason, opt to have a top tier above their miniature cakes so that they have something to cut, such as in the Something Borrowed… design on page 91. Others simply feed each other a bite of cake as a modern twist on tradition.

YOU

Aside from these considerations, it is incredibly important to think seriously about the way you are likely to approach this task. Timing is everything here – when you will bake your cakes and when you will decorate them will inform what the best style of design is for you to work towards.

Do you like to have things done and dusted, with reams of time to spare? Or is it more likely that you’ll be panicking two days before the wedding because you can’t find that pan you could have sworn was at the back of the cupboard? Perhaps you’re somewhere in between: you don’t get stressed unduly, but aren’t comfortable leaving anything to chance either. It’s important to be honest with yourself before you begin, because the way you work as an individual should be a consideration for the kind of wedding cake you make.

Pre-planner

Are you the kind of person who would be in a blind panic if you had anything to complete at the last minute? Do you write endless ‘to do’ lists, which must be ticked off well in advance to avoid sleepless nights and nervous twitches? Does the idea of decorating the cake the day before the wedding day give you heart palpitations?

It’s a wonderful trait to be organized and there are great things to be said for making sure everything is prepared in advance; that you know what you’re doing and when and, most importantly, that you have the self-discipline to stick to your timetable. Despite all your admirable administrative skills, the average cake has a short life span, especially if, as well it should be, maintaining quality and freshness is of optimum importance to you. A traditional, boozy fruitcake will be the least stressful option for you, as a decent maturation time will always make the end results so much more temptingly delicious. But, we all know that what is best for our timetables might not be what’s best for our taste buds and no one should have to compromise on flavour on their wedding day.

Personally, I adore fruitcake with all its sense of occasion and spicy warmth, but I know only too well that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for brandy-soaked raisins and currants. I feel sure my fruitcake recipe is good enough and boozy enough to convert the majority of you, but for the incurably fruitcake-phobic, there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t have a sponge or chocolate torte instead, as long as you’re realistic with your design. I’d recommend choosing sugar or modelling chocolate decorations that can be made in advance and simply stuck on to your cake once it has been iced, so you have less to worry about in the days leading up to the big day. If you want to avoid high blood pressure, steer clear of any intricate hand piping or painting, which can only begin after the cakes have been iced. The same is true of chocolate ruffles; they can only be made once the cake is covered and ready to be dressed.

Last Minute

Are you the sort of person who, if you were given a hundred years to do something, would still need an extra day? Do you always seem to end up having to cram four hours’ work into two, because, despite the best of intentions, you can’t help but leave everything until the last possible moment? Just because you need the pressure of an imminent deadline to force you into action, you needn’t feel that this task is out of your reach.

With the exception of fruitcake, the general rule of thumb is that the later you bake your cakes, the fresher they’ll be and, as a result, the more moist and delicious. You see, being last minute isn’t all bad; in fact, it can be a genuine bonus in cake baking.

Having said that, you’ll want to be bright eyed and bushy tailed on the day itself, so leaving things so late that you are still wearing an apron with icing in your hair at 3 am on the morning of the wedding is a fate to be avoided at all costs. Don’t spoil the day by being too ambitious with what you can achieve in the time you’ve got left.

It’s best to stick to designs that don’t require lots of sugar or chocolate work, which takes time to make and then needs time to set. Hand piping and painting will be your saving grace, as it’s possible to create impressive designs and cover a lot of icing surface very quickly. Cupcakes are a great option as they bake and cool quickly and can be made and iced the day before. If you’ve run out of time to make the roses on the cupcakes (see page 96), there’s no need to beat yourself up. A simple fondant punch-stamped heart or a scattering of pearly sugar balls are sure to go down a storm.

Don’t be afraid to go for chocolate. As long as you avoid a style that requires you to make endless chocolate flowers in advance, you can get impressive results in no time. Why not cover your cakes in chocolate ganache for a beautiful, glossy finish that can be simply stacked and won’t even need to be covered in marzipan first. Once the ganache has set, you can follow the step-by-step guidelines on page 82 for creating a stunning gold leaf effect or simply dress the cake with seasonal fruits or non-poisonous, unsprayed fresh flowers.

Little and Often

If you prefer to keep things balanced with a sense of easy-going order, you’re unlikely to be overcome by the desire to get everything done a long time in advance, but nor will you appreciate the hassle of still having most of the work to do too close to the deadline. You probably think life is too short for the stress of boom and bust, and an all-or-nothing approach just isn’t your style. Make life easy on yourself by choosing a design that can be achieved in fits and starts.

If you’re already a keen baker, you’ll know that chocolate cakes are all the better for being made a couple of days in advance, as their rich indulgence only improves after a spell in an airtight box, especially if coated in marzipan, ganache or modelling chocolate, as they all provide an airtight seal to lock in the moisture. You can make a chocolate cake on a Tuesday for a Saturday wedding, but you’d have to wait at least another 24 hours to start a vanilla sponge if you want it to be light and moist on the day.

You’ll be more than able to cope with styles that require a combination of sugar work and piping. You can make your sugar flowers or butterflies at your own speed, in the weeks leading up to the wedding day, then the last-minute piping details won’t phase you, as you can relax in the knowledge that a large proportion of the work has already been done.

Whatever your approach and whichever flavour and style you choose, don’t forget to have a little fun. The designs in this book are only meant as guides. By all means, follow them exactly if you have fallen in love with one of the images presented, but please feel encouraged to use it as a launch pad for inspiration. The techniques shown in this book will help you develop the skills to enable you to run away with your imagination and create a bespoke design tailored to the special couple’s unique style. You’re the one making this wedding cake, so why not make it very much your own?

getting organized

If you haven’t attempted baking or decorating on this sort of scale before, a trial run or two before the wedding day will certainly help to boost your confidence. If economy is your main objective, trial runs may well be an expense you can’t afford. For a more cost-effective practice session for learning how to smoothly cover a cake, try downscaling the size. Once you master a 6-inch cake, a 12-inch won’t be nearly as stressful when it comes to the real thing. As for piping practice, you won’t need a cake at all, simply upturn a solid-bottomed cake pan and get to work with your piping bag. The icing will wash off easily and your practice dummy is ready for round two.

If you are already artistically persuaded, cocoa butter painting isn’t much of a departure from watercolour painting in that you can build up layers of colour. But it has an attractive similarity with oil painting also as, once it has set, mistakes can be painted over. Cocoa butter has the added bonus that it takes minutes, rather than days, to dry.

Regardless of the wedding cake you choose, just a little bit of pre-planning is guaranteed to make your life so much simpler.

SOURCING YOUR EQUIPMENT

First things first, use the guide on page 140 to work out how big your cake will need to be to feed the number of guests attending. Once you know your cake sizes, you can source the right sized pans. The recipes in this book require a mixture of round, square, deep and shallow pans. (UK readers can use sandwich tins wherever recipes call for the use of two shallow cake pans.) There’s no need to buy a brand new expensive pan that you’re unlikely to use again. Many cake craft stockists hire out cake pans of all sizes at very reasonable prices (see page 158 for stockists).

The cake drum (the thick iced board your cake will be supported on will need to be at least 5–8 cm/2–3 inches larger in diameter than your base tier; so if your base cake is 30 cm/12 inches, you will need to buy a cake drum that is at least 35 cm/14 inches. It is the diameter of the cake drum, not the cake itself, that is the important figure if you decide to hire or buy a cake stand.

If the reception is at a venue regularly used for weddings, the venue will most likely already own a simple silver-plated round or square cake stand. If the wedding venue is as DIY as the cake, or if you have your sights set on something different, you will need to source a stand early on to avoid disappointment.

Don’t forget to work out how you will be getting the cake to the venue. For detailed guidelines, see pages 14–15, but before you even get to that stage, you will need to buy a sturdy, purpose-made box. This is one thing you really don’t want to have forgotten on the day.

Anything else you need will depend on the design you choose –be it new paintbrushes for cocoa butter designs, piping nozzles/tips, cake rods or ribbons. If economy is your overriding motivation, it will be extremely worth your while to make a comprehensive list including absolutely everything you will need before you commit to buying a single thing. You may be surprised by what you are able to borrow from friends and family – from cake pans and measuring scales, to rolling pins and cake paddles.

DUTY OF CARE

However pretty your cake looks and however many different flavours you’re offering the wedding guests, basic rules of food hygiene must be observed. If your oven is still harbouring last Christmas’s goose fat splatters, it would be considerate to give it a thorough clean before any cake baking commences. If you can’t quite face this daunting task, or if it has been so long that you’ll need a chisel to cut through all the charred-on muck, don’t despair. You can make an overdue appointment with a professional oven cleaning service who, at surprisingly little cost, come round and do it all for you.