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| Cakes fall into two
major groups: shortened (fat) cakes and foam cakes (little or no fat). |
 SHORTENED
CAKES:
Contains fat, frequently in a solid form, and a high ratio of eggs to
flour. |
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 FOAM
CAKES:
High ratio of eggs to flour and fall into three categories. |
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#2: Only Fat is Egg Yolk: |
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#3: Oil and Fat in
Addition to Egg Yolks: |
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The Baker's Dozen Tips for Any Cake
Recipe
Cake Tips #s 1 - 6:
I have never known
anyone who didn't want to bake a moist and flavorful cake.
The art of baking a
great recipe takes knowing certain baking techniques, time, practice and
patience. My cake baking tips give valuable information that will
get you started on the right track.
TIP #1:
Read through the
entire recipe several times.
Use the best & freshest
ingredients.
TIP #2:
Use good equipment,
but you need not go overboard.
TIP #3: Use the
pan size and type called for in the recipe.
TIP #4: Have
all ingredients and mixing bowls at room temperature.
TIP #5: Preheat
the oven and prepare
the cake pans.
TIP #6: Pre-measure
all ingredients (mise en place).
You may need to make
recipe adjustments when baking at
higher altitudes
than sea level. |
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Start
With ~ The Baker's Dozen Tips for Any Cake Recipe:
Page 1:
Cakes 101
Page 2: Cake Tip #s
1 - 6
Page 3:
Cake Tip #s 7 - 13
What Went Wrong ? |
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TIP #1:
Read through the entire recipe several times.
Use the best & freshest
ingredients. |
Read through the entire recipe several times so
you become familiar with it. Make sure you have all of the
ingredients
and equipment on hand.
Review important cake making techniques such as
creaming or
beating whole eggs,
whites or
yolks. Pay attention to mixer
speeds and mixing times.
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SARAH SAYS:
I always use a kitchen timer to help me keep
track of mixing times -- for instance, when
Tami's Chocolate Cake
Recipe says to "cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy;
this will take 1-3 minutes", the timer helps me to be accurate. |
A cake is only as good as what goes into it, so
always use quality ingredients. It is basically made from batter containing just
four
ingredients:
fat,
sugar, eggs and
flour, and sometimes also with
chemical leaveners,
milk or liquids and
flavorings. Different types of cakes
are decided with different proportions of the ingredients, including
mixing techniques. The batter is baked until
its interior sets and becomes a crumb and a firm exterior crust develops.
Use
ingredients
specified in the recipe, but some
substitutions are ok. Make sure all are fresh, especially the
baking powder and baking soda.
Read a description of some of the
important ingredients used in cake
baking.
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SARAH
SAYS:
A great way to start learning how to bake a cake is with a
boxed mix from any brand.
With it you simply place the liquid
ingredients, usually eggs, oil and water into your mixing bowl, add the
dry mix, stir to moisten and beat for the amount of time listed in the
box's directions. It is a quick and simple way to make a cake. Once you
master it, then try to bake a cake from scratch. A good recipe to start
with is the Easy Apple Cake Recipe.
Boxed
Cake Mix Tips:
The beating
time and mixer speed used when beating cake batter make a big difference
in the baked cake. Beat the batter for the time specified, using low or
medium speed on a portable or stand mixer. If mixing by hand, beat at the
rate of 150 strokes per minute, resting if necessary.
A little extra beating is
not the thing to do. Mixing too long at too high a speed can result in a
low-volume cake that shrinks while it cools.
FYI: For those of you who wish to make a boxed
mix, but not in the usual way, you can check out
"The Cake Mix Doctor" by Ann Byrn.
This is a great book that takes you through many recipes that begin with a
boxed cake mix and have you end up with a much different type of cake. |
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SARAH
SAYS:
If you aren't going to bake a cake right away, you can measure the
ingredients in advance and store them.
Don't moisten the dry ingredients
until you are ready to bake the recipe because the leaveners in the
recipe, when moistened, will start to release their valuable carbon
dioxide bubbles. By the time you put the cake in the oven, they will be
partially or fully spent so the cake won't rise very high. Plus, the tiny
air bubbles stirred, mixed, beaten, etc. into the batter will pop when the
batter is stored. With little air bubbles left, your cake won't rise very
well, if at all.
Blend
the dry ingredients in and seal in a ziplock bag (marked with what is
inside and what recipe it is for). Keep all perishable ingredients
refrigerated. Let refrigerated ingredients come to room temperature before
you mix the recipe. |
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TIP #2: Use good equipment, but you need not go
overboard. |
As with any baking endeavor,
having good equipment is very important to getting the job done right. You don't
have to buy expensive stuff; most are available in the grocery or in a cookware
store. You can also find baking equipment online;
Wilton.com carries a good
assortment of cake supplies.
Here are a few of the important
items to start with:
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Use shiny, heavy
metal pans for baking cakes, not dark pans or flimsy aluminum ones from the
grocery store. They reflect heat away, producing a tender, lighter-colored
crust. I use the Baker's Secret non-stick
baking pans from the grocery store, which I have had for years.
Use caution when using nonstick
baking pans or glass baking dishes because these pans absorb more heat.
I don't like the effect of either on cake
recipes; they tend to dry out the cake around its edges, even with the
recommended 25 degrees F reduction in oven temperature. |
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If you have two 8-inch and
9-inch round cake pans plus a 8-inch and 9-inch springform pan, you can make
most cakes. Eight and nine inch square pans are also good to have, plus a 9 x
l2 inch pan. A heavy duty aluminum baking sheet for making roulades is
essential. |
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Two
cake cooling racks are necessary for cooling the cake layers. Spray cooling
racks with nonstick coating
before inverting the layers onto the
racks to keep them from sticking. |
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I always use offset cake
spatulas when frosting and glazing of cakes. The blade should be stainless
steel with a bend at the base of the blade, near the handle, called an
"offset" spatula. The minimum to have is an 8-inch and a 4-inch stainless
steel flexible (bends a little) blade ( If you can, a 12-inch one is good to
have, as well). |
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A cake decorating turntable is
used in cake decorating and is also useful when frosting a cake. A true Lazy
Susan can be used if you already have one. If you don't have one, the
alternative is to hold up the cake's bottom in your hand, placed on a cake
circle, and turn it as you need to but, it takes lots of practice to do so.
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A serrated bread knife with a 12
inch blade is a must. It makes cutting cakes so easy, as well as
leveling its top or slicing
layers. |
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Cake circles also known as
corrugated cardboard rounds, are used for supporting cakes and are invaluable
if frosting a cake or decorating it. You can buy them in cake decorating
stores or party stores in various sizes. Always place you cake on one that is
the same perimeter as it and is covered with plastic wrap or foil, held in
place with tape. It is makes it easier to handle and transport your cake. Once
you start using them you will not be able to do without them. |
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For
storing a cake with non
perishable icing and filling, use a cake box. If you don't have one, a large
inverted bowl works well. |
Be sure to
use pans of the size called for in the recipe. A
pan's size is usually stamped somewhere on the pan. If you can't find it, you
can measure across the top from the inside edge to inside edge to get its width.
Then measure the height of the sides.
Check the
pan substitution chart if you
don't have the right size. If the pan is too small or too large, the cake batter
will either over-flow or under-rise during baking.
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SARAH SAYS:
Shiny metal pans
work best for cake baking because the heat is reflected away from it,
producing a tender, light-brown crust. |
Have all of the ingredients and
mixing bowls at room temperature, unless specified otherwise. If the butter and
eggs are not at room temperature, the batter may separate during mixing, causing
the baked cake to be rough in texture. However, separate your eggs when they are
still cold because they will do so more easily. Do you know how to test if your
butter is at room temperature ? How
about the best way to get room temperature eggs
?
Before heating
the oven: An accurate oven
temperature is paramount because it prevents many
baking problems. It is measured by an oven thermometer, available
from the grocery store. Hang it in your oven before preheating.
| Check to see how layer cake pans will
fit on an oven rack. Some layer cake recipes use 3 round baking pans. In the
cold oven, make sure you can stagger the pans on the upper third and lower
third rack. There should be 1 inch between pans, and between the pans and the
sides of the oven. The oven door should close completely. For more, see
Tip #9. |
| Adjust the oven shelf
to the middle rungs or whatever the recipe specifies and turn on the oven to
preheat. Remember if you are using a glass pan, reduce the temperature by 25
degrees. |
| Allow about 20 minutes for
the oven to preheat and get hot |
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Prepare the cake pan(s) according
to the recipe and set aside. |
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SARAH SAYS:
Cakes do not bake
well in a convection oven.
They are best
baked in a conventional one. For best baking, professional chef's
recommend an electric oven with gas burners, but I use my all gas oven
without any problem. |
Pre-measuring and preparing helps to prevent
leaving something out, which I have done myself before! Once I put a cake in the
oven and the baking soda was sitting on the countertop unused, staring me in the
face.
Place all measured ingredients in
appropriate bowls; do not combine them until you make the recipe and follow it's
instructions.
| Spoon dry ingredients, such as
flour, lightly into a
dry-ingredient nesting measuring cup and level with a straight-edged
spatula or knife. |
| Measure liquid ingredients in a
glass or plastic measuring cup with a pour spout. If it contains milk,
refrigerate it if not using right away. Ideally it should be a room
temperature, so let it sit for about 20 minutes before using in a recipe.
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| Use measuring spoons to measure
tablespoons and teaspoons or a portion of them. |
| Or, if the recipe calls for
adding in eggs one at a time,
pre-crack them in separate bowls
or in paper muffin cups (so you can throw them away). This is so you don't
over mix the batter while cracking each egg, one at a time (you also don't
have to wash your hands for safety, after cracking each one when making the
recipe). Make sure they are at room
temperature before using. |
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SARAH SAYS:
Safeguard
perishable items. Do not leave ingredients out at room temperature for an
excessive amount of time - 2 hours is the general rule at 68 degrees F.
It's best to refrigerate perishable ingredients after measuring if not
using right away. |
Some tips when combining ingredients:
| To make sure the leaveners are well
distributed throughout the flour, I blend them in a medium-sized or large bowl
with a wire whisk or fork. |
| If using cocoa powder, it can clump
and can be hard to incorporate it with the flour. The best way that I have
found is to sift the flour and cocoa powder together along with the salt and
leaveners AFTER measuring, making sure everything is well-blended (unless the
recipe calls for 1 cup sifted flour.
Sift the flour and then measure. Then, resift with the cocoa powder and other
dry ingredients). If using cocoa powder alone, just sift before using.
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| Store perishable
ingredients such as milk or sour cream, covered in refrigerator if not using
right away. Let come to room temperature before using. |
| DO NOT
OVERBEAT AFTER THE EGGS HAVE BEEN ADDED:
Overbeating whips in too much air and creates tunnels in the cake.
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What to do when a recipe calls for raw
eggs: In the traditional
tiramisu recipe, it
calls for the use of raw eggs. To make them safe, you can make sabayon that
would cook the eggs properly before you add them to the tiramisu layering.
Coddling or soft-boiling the eggs would not kill any bacteria in the eggs.
| With sabayon, you foam the eggs,
whipping them over simmering water. It's the same technique you may use for
making a hollandaise, where you whip and foam the eggs over a double boiler.
This way, they are cooked and foamed at the same time, and this will give you
a lighter tiramisu. |
| See also safe
eggs. |
Start With
The Baker's Dozen Tips for Any Cake Recipe:
Page 1:
Cakes 101
Page 2: Cake Tip #s 1 - 6
Page 3:
Cake Tip #s 7 - 13
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