34.1 High-fat cakes: creaming, one-stage, two-stage

Butter cakes are also called high-fat cakes. Butter is the fat, and it gives a better feel in the mouth, because butter melts at body temperature and shortening does not. Some bakers still choose shortening: it costs less and forms an emulsion more easily.

The batter is an emulsion

Four things break a batter:

• The wrong fat. Each formula is built for one fat, so do not swap. High-ratio shortening cannot hold as much as butter. Butter already contains water, so a butter formula keeps its water down to what the butter can carry.
• Ingredients at the wrong temperature. Fat and water join best at room temperature, given as about 70°F.
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• A rushed mixer. A higher speed does not make the emulsion form any faster. Air cells form at a lower speed.
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• Liquid poured in too fast. The batter cannot take it up. Add liquids in stages, taking turns with the dry ingredients, and the batter stays smooth.
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Air cells and the crumb

The crumb is the inside texture of the baked cake. Small, even air cells give a smooth, fine crumb. Large or uneven cells give a coarse one. The best cells come from beating butter and granulated sugar together slowly, at low speed. A fast mixer warms the mix and the cells do not form properly.

How flour proteins set in heat is covered earlier. see chapter 7: Flour

The creaming method

Creaming means beating fat and sugar together until they hold air. The creaming method runs like this:

• Weigh every ingredient exactly, and let all of them come to room temperature.
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• Put the fat in the mixer bowl with the paddle attachment. Mix on low until it is creamy and has no lumps.
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• Scrape down the bowl. Add the sugar and beat on low to medium speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until the mix is white, light and fluffy. Watch the butter's color change.
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• Scrape again. Add the eggs a little at a time. Let each addition disappear into the mix before the next one; the mix becomes light and fluffy again.
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• Once all the eggs are in, add the dry and liquid ingredients in turns, a part at a time. Begin with dry and finish with dry. Mix each part only until it is just taken in, then stop and scrape the bowl. Scraping and taking turns keep the batter even.
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Vanilla and spices can go in after the fat and sugar are creamed, or into the liquid. Some bakers sift spices in with the dry ingredients. Melted chocolate can be added during creaming, as long as you watch its temperature.

Weighing and the mixer are taught in earlier chapters. see chapter 5: Measuring by weight and by volume see chapter 3: Mixers

The conventional method: a small yellow cake

This way of mixing is also called the conventional method, and its creaming step works the same way. A small yellow cake shows the method in a small batch:

• Sift the dry ingredients (cake flour, leavening, salt) three times together.
• Beat butter, vegetable shortening and vanilla together. If the fats turn too soft, set the bowl in ice.
• Add the sugar a teaspoon at a time, creaming after each until the mix is light and fluffy. Then beat for about one more minute with the electric mixer.
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• Beat the egg on its own at high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until thick and foamy. Add it to the creamed mix in thirds, beating about half a minute after each.
• Add flour and milk in turns, stirring by hand only until each is blended. After the last flour, give the batter 100 strokes.
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• Push the batter into the lined pan at once. Lift the pan 6 inches and drop it sharply on the table to settle the batter.
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• Bake at 375°F for about 25 to 30 minutes, until the center springs back when touched lightly.
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A good result shows these marks.

• Outside: evenly golden brown.
• Top: slightly rounded and smooth.
• Grain: fine and even, with small air cells and thin walls between them.
• Tenderness: so tender it barely resists your bite.
• Flavor: mild and sweet.

One-stage and two-stage cakes

Some ovens can add steam. Steam slows the crust from forming, so the cake keeps rising evenly for longer. It helps three kinds of cake: creamed, two-stage and one-stage cakes.

Baking and doneness

These rules apply to any cake in the oven:

• Heat the oven fully before the cake goes in.
• Check that the oven and its racks are level, or the cake bakes unevenly.
• Leave even space between pans so air moves around each one.
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• Use the right temperature for that cake. Too hot, and the top sets before the cake has finished rising. Too cool, and the cake may not rise enough and then fall.
• Keep the oven door shut until the cake has risen and its structure has set. Opening it early can make the cake fall.
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A cake is done when it begins shrinking from the pan's sides, when the top springs back from a light touch, and when a cake tester pushed into the center comes out clean.

Cooling and turning out

Cool cakes in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes, until just warm. Taken out sooner, a soft cake can crack. Then move it to a rack to finish cooling.

To turn out a sheet cake:

• Lay parchment over it, then a cake board.
• Flip the pan so the cake sits on the board.
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• Put a second board on the cake's bottom and flip both boards together. The cake now rests right way up.
• Peel off the parchment and let it cool.
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The small yellow cake cools for 10 minutes on a rack before taking it out of the pan. Do not slice it until it has reached room temperature.

How egg-foam cakes differ

Chiffon and angel food are egg-foam cakes, with little or no added fat. Chiffon gets a leavener as well. In angel food, the air whipped into the whites does most of the lifting.

The chiffon method runs in steps.

• Sift the dry ingredients and part of the sugar into the bowl.
• Stream in oil on low speed, followed by yolks, water and flavorings.
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• Whip the whites separately to soft peak.
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• Add the cream of tartar and the rest of the sugar, and whip to stiff peak.
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• Fold the whites into the batter.
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The pan is handled differently too. For chiffon, grease the pan and line only its bottom. Grease on the sides stops the cake clinging to them, and then it will not rise. Angel food and chiffon cool completely in the pan, turned upside down but held off the table so air can move. Hanging this way stops the cake from collapsing; it does not drop out, because it clings to the sides. Once cool, free it with a knife.

Buttercreams: safety first

Follow these rules:

• The danger zone runs from 4°C to 60°C (40°F to 140°F). Most harmful bacteria grow fast in it.
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• Store all cold food at 4°C (40°F) or below.
• Keep dairy products refrigerated, between 2°C and 4°C (36°F and 39°F), in their own covered area, because their fat picks up strong smells.
• Mark a food made ahead and kept chilled for more than a day with the date it was made and a "serve by" date. Throw out potentially hazardous foods not used within three days of being made.
• Raw eggs in some recipes have caused outbreaks of food poisoning. Use pasteurized products, such as pasteurized liquid eggs, where you can, and never serve such foods to high-risk customers such as seniors, young children or people who are ill.

Choosing pasteurized eggs in place of raw is covered with eggs. see chapter 15: Pasteurized eggs in place of raw

The buttercreams

A buttercream is a light, fluffy frosting for finishing and decorating a cake. Recipes run from simple to complex, and each kind has its own taste and texture.

There are three classical buttercreams. Each starts from a meringue, and all three are soft and smooth:

• Swiss buttercream. Warm egg whites and sugar over a bain-marie (a pan of hot water) until the sugar melts. Whip on high until the meringue cools and doubles. Add cold butter, or butter and shortening, a little at a time. Partway through it looks broken; keep adding butter and it comes back together. Add any flavoring now.
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• Italian buttercream. Boil sugar and water to 240°F while the whites whip to soft peaks. Pour the hot syrup into the whites as they whip, and keep whipping until cool. Work in the butter in pieces. It looks curdled at first; keep mixing until it turns smooth and creamy.
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• French buttercream. This one uses yolks, not whites. Cook sugar and water to 240°F. Whip the yolks to the ribbon stage, thick and pale. Pour in the syrup and whip until the mix is cool and thick. Add butter slowly, letting each piece blend in before the next, then flavor.
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American buttercream needs no cooking. Cream butter or shortening with the paddle until smooth and fluffy, beat in powdered sugar and flavoring, then thin it with cream or water. It is sweet and fluffy, takes flavors easily, and sets with a dry sugar crust on the outside. It melts at a very low temperature, so it does not suit a cake served outdoors in summer.

Royal icing dries hard. It is piped as a thick icing for strings and outlines and to make edible flowers; thinned, it fills in outlined shapes. Break up egg whites with the paddle, then add cream of tartar and powdered sugar and mix until stiff and fluffy with soft peaks. Keep it under a damp cloth while you work.

Glazes and other coatings

A glaze is a thin, almost clear coat poured over a cake. It gives a shiny surface and keeps the cake from drying out.

• Chocolate glaze. Hot cream poured over chocolate melts it; butter, glucose or corn syrup is mixed in. Pour it once it feels cool. Cooled the right way, it can also be whipped into a frosting.
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• Gelatin glaze. Gelatin, softened in water and melted, sets this glaze. Mix it with the other ingredients and use it at once; if it sits and cools, it sets.
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• Rolled fondant. A thick sugar paste, home-made or bought, rolled out to cover a cake or molded into shapes. It protects the cake and stops it drying.
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• Marzipan. Almond paste, sugar and corn syrup, very sweet, used as a coating, for small garnishes, as a candy and as a truffle filling.
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• Modeling chocolate. Melted chocolate and corn syrup, thick and easy to shape, rather like stiff play dough.
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Cake syrup

A cake made from scratch has none of the preservatives that keep a boxed mix moist. Brushing the layers with cake syrup adds moisture. It is equal parts water and sugar, and it can be flavored or have a liqueur or spirit added.

Building a layer cake

Plan the whole cake before you start. The assembly, the frosting, the fillings and the garnish all follow from that design.

• Brush loose crumbs off the cooled layers with a dry pastry brush.
• A slightly domed top can be evened out with buttercream. A high dome is cut off level.
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• Set the first layer on a cake board of the right size.
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• Split layers in half if you want a taller cake with more filling and frosting in each slice.
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• Brush every layer but the top one with cake syrup.
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• For a filling that is not buttercream, pipe a ring of frosting around the edge of the layer first. This dam holds the filling in.
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• Save the flattest piece, a layer's bottom, for the very top of the cake, so the finished cake is straight and level.
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• Spread a very thin crumb coat over the stacked cake to trap stray crumbs, and chill it to set.
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• Add the final coat of buttercream, unless a rolled coating will go on instead. It should show no crumbs. The cake is then ready to decorate.
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Cutting a round cake

Round cakes and pies are most often cut into 8, 12 or 16 even slices.

• 8 slices: cut the cake in half, cut each half in half, then cut each quarter in half.
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• 12 slices: a little harder. Cut the cake into quarters, then cut each quarter into 3 equal pieces.
• 16 slices: the hardest. Cut it into eighths as for 8 slices, then halve each eighth.