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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 7 - 13:
Cakes are differentiated not only by
their flavorings or added ingredients but also by their
mixing methods.
A properly mixed cake
batter should have a uniform mixture with all of the ingredients
completely incorporated. The formation of evenly distributed and tiny
air cells has a big impact on the final cake's texture, appearance,
keeping qualities and flavor.
TIP #7:
Follow all baking steps.
Do not delay in between. Do not under- or over-mix.
TIP #8:
Quickly place the batter
into the prepared pans. Prevent the cake from baking with a middle
hump.
TIP #9: Bake your
cake immediately after filling your pans. Do not open the oven door
during the first 30 minutes of baking.
TIP #10:
Check for doneness at
beginning of the time range.
TIP #11:
Cool cakes completely
after baking.
TIP #12:
Eat cake as is or frost
before serving.
TIP #13:
Properly store
cakes.
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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 #7: Follow all baking steps. Do not delay in
between. Do not under- or over-mix.
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The goal in
making the recipe is to have all
ingredients evenly dispersed throughout the cake's batter.
 Q:
My cake batter looks
greasy and curdled after I add the eggs to the butter and sugar. What's
wrong? A: Make sure the eggs
are at room temperature. If they are too cold, the butter clumps up. Keep
mixing and the batter will come together again. Remember not to overmix. |
When mixing them, frequently
scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters, and if
necessary stop the beaters to scrape. Make sure you also scrape the
bottom of bowl to get any extra pockets of flour or ingredients.
A rubber or soft plastic spatula does a good job.
One of the most common mistakes in baking cakes
is to overbeat the batter after adding the flour. This makes the flour develop
too much of the protein gluten, which is what makes the cake hold its shape. If
you get too much, the cake will be dry and tough. Some tips:
 | For best results, nuts, raisins and fruits
are added in the batter last, with a spatula, moving in a gentle
folding motion, unless the recipe
specifies otherwise. |
| If you see some unblended flour in the
batter after mixing, do not re-mix it. Instead, remove the bowl from the mixer
and finish mixing by hand with a spatula in a gentle
folding motion. Do so only a few times until the excess is just
incorporated; do not mix. |
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Q:
Why do some cake recipes have
you add in the dry ingredients in three equal parts, and alternating with
the liquid ones, in two equal parts, beginning and ending with the dry
ingredients (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry) ?
A:
I
carefully looked at what I call the "3-2-3-2-3
Cake Mixing Steps"
and figured out the importance of each one (I have also seen other
proportions):
A cake batter is simply an
emulsion
which holds millions of air bubbles. Fat and liquid by nature
are unmixable, and the goal when mixing a cake is to form a water-in-fat
emulsion. A uniform batter leads the way to a fine textured cake with good
volume.
If we were to dump all the liquid in, and
then all the flour, we would break down the cake batter's emulsion. The air
bubbles, we worked so hard to create through creaming and mixing, would
break or escape. The final cake would end up being flat, dry and flavorless.
Adding one-third of the dry ingredients
with one-half of the liquid ingredients until both are blended in helps to
retain that emulsion and also prevents a lot of excess gluten from forming
when flour and water/moisture are mixed together.
| Butter, Sugar,
Eggs: The butter and sugar are
creamed and then the eggs are added ONE AT A TIME, creating an
emulsion.
It is defined as the mixture of
two liquids, such as oil and water, that don't naturally combine smoothly,
formed by the suspension of one liquid in another. If eggs are
beaten in, make sure each one is FULLY incorporated into the batter before
adding another one -- this is very important and often overlooked. Room
temperature eggs incorporate best. It's done for the same reason
that you drizzle oil into a salad dressing - because the beginning mixture
contains fat and water, just like eggs, they won't normally mix well. A
cake batter is really a large emulsion. Emulsions have a much better
chance of forming if the elements are brought together slowly. If you
don't add them slowly, they'll separate and you won't have a homogeneous
mixture. |
| 1/3
part Flour: The first addition of 1/3 part flour is added to
the creamed butter and sugar mixture. If you were to add the liquids in
first, the emulsion would break
and the batter would pull apart. Also, when the flour is added, the fat
coats it preventing excess gluten from forming when the mixture is
moistened and stirred. |
| 1/2 part
Liquid: When the1/2 part liquid is added, the flour proteins
present in the preciously added flour have been coated with fat. As a
result, they are protected from the moisture or creating too much gluten
when stirred. |
| 1/3 part Flour:
When the second 1/3 part of flour is added, this flour addition is not
protected by a "fat raincoat", so mixing must be quick to prevent gluten.
A recipe never tells you, so the tendency is to take our time to mix the
ingredients, creating a tough cake. |
| 1/2 part Liquid
and 1/3 part Flour: The last two additions enable you to mix
them into the cake without overdoing it, and these too, should be quickly
added. If all the flour or liquids were added in the first three
additions, the batter would be thick and require a lot of mixing. This
would toughen the cake, even with the presence of butter. |
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|
Q:
"How do I get my made-from-scratch cakes as light and fluffy as my boxed
ones ?" A: It is hard
to duplicate the texture in made-from-scratch cakes that are found in boxed
cakes.
Boxed cake mixes contain chemical
emulsifiers, found naturally in egg yolks, which makes them creamy and
moist. They give them what is known as tolerance, i.e., the ability to keep
their texture despite additions of various extra ingredients. Sometimes
these emulsifiers result in a slight metallic after-taste.
Boxed cake mixes also contain special
leavening ingredients which help them rise when baked or become fluffy,
regardless of the mixing technique used,
so essential when making homemade cakes.
P.S. One box of cake mix will
yield a batter of
about 4 to 4˝ cups. |
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SARAH SAYS:
DO NOT OVERBEAT A
CAKE BATTER. WHY ?:
Overbeating
the butter
can soften it too much, which will diminish its ability to trap air.
Overbeating the
eggs whips in
too much air and creates tunnels in the cake.
Overbeating once the
flour
has been added, promotes gluten formation
and toughens the cake.
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TIP #8: Quickly place the batter into the prepared
pans. Prevent the cake from baking with a middle hump.
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Q:
I
need to make a heart shaped cake and
don't have a heart shaped pan? A:
Bake one square layer cake and one round layer
cake. Cut the round cake in half. Fit the halves on the square layer to make
a heart shape. Frost!
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Immediately after mixing,
pour cake batter into prepared pan(s) (See
How to Prepare Baking Pans) making
sure you get all of the batter from the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula -- if
you don't, you can't believe how much batter is left behind.
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Q:
I need to make a
sheet cake -- half vanilla half chocolate. Can this
be done?
A:
I always measure a piece of cardboard the
width of the inside of the pan and then cover it with tin foil. Holding the
cardboard down I pour the vanilla batter in and then pour the chocolate
batter in on the other side of the cardboard and very slowly and carefully
lift out the cardboard/foil piece. Then bake.
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Generally, fill pan no
more than 1/2 full, or as specified, to allow for rising during baking.
Always remove excess air bubbles from the batter before baking,
except for cakes with a lot of fruit or nuts in them. Lightly drop the filled
pan on the counter three or four times or run a table knife through the batter
several times. The cake will bake more uniformly when this is done.
Spread it evenly and lightly
with the same rubber spatula. Clean off any excess batter on the pan's sides
with a damp paper towel, otherwise it will burn onto the pan during baking.
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SARAH SAYS:
Some cakes will dome and/or split across the
top as they bake and rise. This
happens because the sides bake faster than the middle, as they are in
constant contact with the hot pan. As the sides set, the leaveners
continue to push the almost center higher, causing a dome and/or a crack
across the top from the pressure. The center sets last during baking.
Wrapping the sides of the
pan with some type of insulation, helps the whole cake bake more evenly. Magic
Cake Baking Strips work well. They are moistened and then
secured on the pan with Velcro. Put them on before you fill the pan with
batter.
Another way is to pour
your batter into the pan and then, using a spatula, scrape the batter
evenly from the middle of the pan toward the sides of the pan, making them
higher than the middle. As the batter bakes up it will seep back toward
the middle and some claim that it always end up flat on top. For pound
cakes, others advise to pull the batter up at about a 45-degree angle from
the center tube toward the top of the pan. But, I don't do this with my
batters because I don't like to fuss so much with it before baking. And,
where the batter pulls down on the sides, the excess turns brown and hard
during baking. |
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TIP #9: Bake your
cake immediately after filling your pans. Do not open the oven door during
the first 30 minutes of baking.
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Q:
What should I do if my oven starts to brown the top of the cake too quickly?
A:
If you have the cake in the middle part of the oven, try moving it to a
lower rack. You could also cover the top of the cake loosely with a piece of
aluminum foil. |
Get the pans into the
preheated oven as quickly as possible. It is important because you don't want to
lose leavening gases or air cells from the batter, as they are both essential
for a cake's rise. The leaveners
start reacting immediately and beaten egg whites start deflating after 5
minutes.
Quickly put the pan in the oven as soon as you open its door; you don't want to
loose a lot of the oven's heat while doing so.
If you can only bake one at a time, refrigerate
the other pan until ready to bake -- this will not work if the beaten egg whites
are used solely for leavening. But note that a refrigerated batter looses its
leavening power, as well and shouldn't be kept there for long.
Place the
filled pan in the oven as near the center (both vertical and horizontal center)
as possible. Allow at least an inch of space on all sides and between the pans
if you have the room.
If
you need two oven racks, stagger the pans
between the lower third and upper-third
shelves. If your recipe permits, rotate the pans half way through baking.
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SARAH SAYS:
I would never refrigerate unbaked cake
batter unless it was absolutely necessary, and only for a short while to
free up oven space. The leavenings in all cake batters, and the
creamed in air bubbles in pound cakes, won't last forever, and without
them you lose all the properties of a lovely cake you worked so hard to
achieve. |
What if 3 pans don't fit or you have only 2
layer pans? Just cover and refrigerate batter in the third pan or in the mixing
bowl while first 2 layers are baking. If you have 2 pans, remove baked cakes
from pans and cool one pan before baking the remaining batter.
Don't open the oven door during the first 30
minutes of baking or jar the pans.
At this stage, cakes can easily
collapse because the cake's structure has not set firmly.
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SARAH SAYS:
Air
cells are the millions of tiny pockets found inside cakes and most baked
products. Known
technically as the "crumb", these air cells are trapped inside the webbing
of starch and protein. These air cells are created by one or several
actions. They are 1) The expansion of trapped gases by heat & steam. 2)
Chemical leavening - baking soda & baking powder. 3) Mechanical Leavening
- creaming method & egg foaming method. |
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TIP #10: Check for doneness at beginning of the time
range. |
The goal is to get the cake out of the oven
before it over-bakes.
During baking, don't check on your cake by opening the oven door or moving the
pans.
Watch baking times carefully
and let your nose and eyes also guide you. Always set a kitchen timer to help
you keep track. Set it on the first baking time in the range -- for example, if
a recipe says to "bake for 45 to 50 minutes", set the timer to 40 minutes and
check on the cake. I judge how much longer
it needs and peek in about every 5 to 8 minutes. Pretty soon as you get more
experienced, you'll know what a baked cake smells and looks like, letting that
be your judge.
You may need extra baking time
if you have more than one pan in the oven at a time -- do not increase the
oven's temperature. On the flip side, you will probably need less baking time if
you are making cakes in a smaller pan than specified -- such as cupcakes
-- do not reduce the oven's temperature.
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SARAH SAYS:
If the
bottom of your cake burns during baking, freeze it.
Then when frozen, use a
serrated knife to scrape off the burned parts. |
TESTS FOR DONENESS:
You'll know when the cake is done when you see a cake center that isn't wobbly
or moist. With a butter cake, it is done when touched with your fingertip and it
quickly springs back like a sponge.
The sides of the cake also shrinks away from the sides of the pan.
Another test is to insert
a toothpick or cake tester (a slender skewer) in the middle and remove. When
you are testing for doneness with a toothpick you are looking for NO BATTER
sticking to the toothpick. If it has some moist crumbs, your cake is done. If
there is wetness (not moistness) sticking to the toothpick, then you need to
bake it more.
With an angel or sponge cake, as long as it
"sings" in the oven, it is not done. The "signing" is really the eggs releasing
steam. When the "singing" stops and the cake is nicely browned and springy to
the touch, it's ready to come out. Angel and sponge cakes will not shrink from
the sides of the pan. Remember to invert angel food or sponge cakes in their
pans to cool.
Healthy cake recipes have different
tests for doneness, as well as cheesecakes.
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SARAH SAYS:
KNOW
YOUR OVEN: My oven bakes faster
than the recipe indicates, so I know to check at 10 minutes before the
first suggested time in the range. |
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TIP #11: Cool cakes completely after baking. |
When the cake is done baking, carefully remove
it from the oven. Place immediately on a wire cake rack to cool for 5 - 10
minutes before unmolding. For decorative bundt cakes or those made in a novelty
pan, let sit for the full 10 minutes. Most
cakes are fragile when they first come out of the oven; they will fall apart or
stick to the pan if unmolding is done too soon.
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Q.
Why are my cake's edges hard? A. Your
pans are too dark, or you might be using the commercial oil sprays that
contain propellants (read the labels). You can also opt for shiny pans and
avoid using oils you spray on; rather use a
refillable oil one. |
Then, when the 5 to 10 minutes is up, unmold
your cake to a wire cake rack to cool, while taking care so it won't crack or
fall apart. The reason for moving the cake from its pan is that the bottom of a
cake (and sides) can become moist when cooling as steam released from the warm
cake gets trapped by the pan's walls. To avoid a soggy exterior, cool cakes out
of their pan on a rack so that air can circulate.
To remove a cake, first run a
knife around the edges to loosen the sides. Then place a wire rack against the
top of the cake and with a hand on each side of cake pan and rack, quickly
invert. Gently shake or tap the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon handle to
help remove the cake.
If
you have trouble removing a stubborn cake from a pan and it starts to crack,
don't force it. Either let the cake cool a few more minutes and try again. .
Place cake, bottom side
up on the cake rack if you used parchment or waxed paper to line the cake pan,
otherwise cool it top side up. Once on the
wire rack, carefully peel of any paper.
After
removing the paper, cool the cake right-side-up (it will be upside-down).
To flip over, top cake with another rack, then quickly turn both racks over and
remove the top one. The cake should be right-side up.
To avoid marking cake with indentations from the
rack, place a dish towel or waxed paper on the rack first.
Leave on rack until it's
completely cooled (about an hour) before
cutting,
frosting,
serving, or
storing.
Cake cooling tips:
Note that some cakes such as cheesecakes, cool in their pans on a wire cake
rack; the recipe will direct you.
Rectangular cakes (often in 13
x 9-inch baking pans) can be kept in the pan or removed to a wire rack for
cooling.
Angel Food and Sponge Cakes
need to be overturned when they come out of the oven or they will collapse on
themselves.
Some cakes, such as many of the
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Recipe, which
depend on many beaten egg whites, will often rise in the oven then fall a bit as
they cool.
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SARAH SAYS:
Sometimes a cake will fall during
cooling. This happens because it was taken out of the oven too
soon and the cake structure hadn't quite set. Upon cooling, the cell walls
will collapse and the cake will sink. Next time you bake, be sure you
check your cake for doneness. |
For a standard cake recipe
(such as one with creamed butter and sugar, not a 'sponge-style' cake) if it's
collapsing as it cools, you are either under baking the cake, not adding enough
flour, or there is too much leavening in the recipe.
If the cake was baked in a tart ring, you
should be able to lift the ring off easily.
If the cake was baked in a mold and doesn't
slide out easily (which they seldom do) let it cool a few more minutes in the
pan. Try to loosen any spots where the cake is clinging to the side. Some wrap a
damp towel around the pan's sides for 5 minutes or so to generate more steam so
the cake will release easily. Invert and sitting on a wire cake rack, tap
lightly on the bottom with a wooden spoon. Once the cake is free, invert it
again to keep the top from sticking to the rack. (See
How to Prepare Baking Pans).
Cooled cakes are meant to
be served as is while other taste best
frosted first. Others are meant to be
cut into layers called
torting, filled with a filling
and then frosted. For serving wedding cakes,
click here.
To cut a cake:
| For layer cakes, use a sharp, long, thin
knife. |
| For pound cakes, use a thin serrated knife.
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| If the frosting sticks to knife, dip the
knife in hot water and wipe with a damp paper towel after cutting each slice.
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| To prevent pressing down and crushing angel
food and chiffon cakes, cut in a gentle sawing motion with sharp, thin
serrated knife or electric knife. |
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SARAH SAYS:
An easy
way to get more pieces from a round cake is to: Cut a circular ring around
the center of the cake, leave intact. Then cut slices all around the
outside area of the ring and then in the inside area of the ring. |
Many cooled cakes are
best assembled right before serving. Some frostings are best used within a few
hours of making, such as those containing whipped cream. Each recipe will direct
you or go to Decorating: Icing
& Glaze Choices for help.
If you're going to glaze a layer cake with
glaze or a
Poured Fondant (sugar glaze),
first refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour after cooling. How
to slice and serve.
The time and effort spent on your cake can be
ruined by improper storage. Some tips for success are (Complete
Cake Storage Guide):
| Avoid refrigeration
unless the cake contains perishable icings and fillings with eggs, custards,
whipped cream etc. In general, refrigeration dries a
cake and impairs its flavor, so cakes that require it are best consumed within
a day or two. |
| If a cake contains
some form of fat, it freezes better than not.
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| If you are planning to freeze a cake on
cardboard, make sure the cardboard is securely covered with foil or plastic
wrap. If not, depending on how cold your freezer is or how long the cake is
frozen, the cake can pick up a cardboard flavor. |
| Cakes with custards and any
fillings made with eggs do not freeze well. |
Unfrosted cakes:
| All unfrosted cakes should
be thoroughly cooled before storing. If you try to store one that is still
warm, it will “sweat” inside the wrapping, making the cake damp. If freezing,
the moisture will turn into ice particles on the cake, ruining it.
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| In general, an unfrosted
cake can be frozen for up to four months. |
| To wrap a cooled cake,
first wrap in plastic wrap and then place in an airtight bag (I use a garbage
bag for a large cake), making sure that there is a minimum amount of air in
the wrapping. If freezing the cakes longer than one week you can also add a
third layer with tin foil, to help prevent frost buildup. In general, aluminum
foil should not be used in place of plastic wrap as the only covering; it can
develop holes causing the cake to take on freezer flavors or a metallic
taste.
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Frosted cakes:
| Store cakes with creamy
frostings, except for perishable ones, under a cake saver or large inverted
bowl placed in a cool place. |
| A frosted cake can be frozen
for a week or two and sometimes up to a month, depending upon the filling and
frosting. |
| Cakes with non-crusting
icing freezes best. Cakes shrink when frozen and expand when thawed, so if you
use an icing that crusts it will crack. Those made with buttercream and
confectioners' sugar frostings do. |
| If you have already
iced the cake, stick it in the freezer to harden the frosting first, then take
it out and wrap in plastic wrap and place in an airtight bag. For large cakes,
put on one layer of plastic wrap, then wrap the cake in a plastic trash bag.
You can suck extra air out of the bag with a straw.
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SARAH SAYS:
To
transport my frosted cakes, I use the plain and simple Rubbermaid cake
savers found at Target, Wal-Mart and other discount stores.
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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
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