Working safely and hygienically: the personal, kitchen and food-safety practices needed to produce cakes and baked items safely.

What this dot point is asking

The SQA wants you to work safely (avoiding accidents and injuries) and hygienically (avoiding contamination and food poisoning) throughout the production of a cake. Good safety and hygiene run through the whole practical activity and are part of the marks.

Why safety and hygiene matter

A cake is food other people will eat, so it must be made without injury to you and without contamination that could make others ill.

Personal hygiene

How you present and behave matters as much as how clean the kitchen is.

Kitchen safety

Most kitchen accidents are cuts, burns and slips, and all are avoidable:

• Knives. Use a sharp knife on a stable board, cut away from yourself, and carry knives pointing down.
• Heat. Use dry oven gloves for hot tins and trays, turn pan handles inwards, and let tins cool before handling.
• Electricals. Keep mixer flexes away from water and edges, switch off before scraping a bowl, and keep fingers clear of beaters.
• Slips and falls. Mop up spills at once and keep the floor and walkways clear.
• Equipment. Use a stand mixer's guard, and never put hands near moving blades.

Food safety and cross-contamination

The biggest food-safety risk is cross-contamination - harmful bacteria spreading to the cake.

To prevent it:

• Separate raw and ready-to-eat. Keep raw eggs and their shells away from finished items, and wash hands and equipment after handling them.
• Clean as you go. Wash boards, bowls and utensils in hot soapy water, and wipe surfaces with a clean cloth and sanitiser.
• Store correctly. Keep the finished cake covered. A cake with a perishable filling such as fresh cream or cream cheese must be kept in the fridge so bacteria cannot grow; a fruit cake or a cake under sugarpaste can be kept covered at room temperature.

Common traps

Examples in context

Example 1. Cleaning as you go. A candidate washes each bowl and utensil as soon as it is finished with, wipes the surface, and keeps the work area tidy. This prevents bacteria building up and also helps time management, because the final clean-up is small.

Example 2. Storing a fruit cake versus a cream cake. A heavily fruited cake covered in marzipan and sugarpaste keeps safely in a tin at room temperature, while a sponge filled with fresh cream must go in the fridge. The candidate chooses storage to match the filling.

Try this

Q1. State why a cut should be covered with a brightly coloured waterproof plaster when handling food. [1 mark]

• Cue. So bacteria from the cut cannot reach the food, and so the plaster can be seen and found if it falls off.

Q2. Name one cake filling that means the finished cake must be kept in the fridge. [1 mark]

• Cue. Fresh (whipped) cream, or another perishable filling such as cream cheese.