A good cake seldom fails to delight, and it is truly extraordinary how many variations can be made from the same basic ingredients. Changing the proportions of ingredients will, of course, have an effect on the finished article, but it will affect the taste most of all. The mixing method is one of the most important factors to determine texture. Creaming, whisking, beating and rubbing in all produce different results. It is not difficult to produce an excellent cake, as long as you follow the instructions given in the recipe and use the right techniques. The following tips will help you get the best results from the recipes.
OVEN TEMPERATURES
The oven should always be preheated to the required temperature, ready to accommodate the batter as soon as it has been put together. Most cake batters are best baked at moderate temperatures, and this applies particularly to those leavened with baking powder. A lower temperature allows the batter to expand gradually and more evenly. By contrast, a blast of heat has the effect of making the outer part of the cake set very rapidly, leaving the inner part struggling to catch up. This may result in doming (where the sides of a cake remain far lower than the middle) as well as cracks. Cakes that rely on whisked eggs to lighten them and to determine their structure can be baked at higher temperatures, since most of the expansion has already taken place before the cake is put into the oven.
GREASING AND FLOURING
Even non-stick tins benefit from greasing and flouring. This allows a finished cake to slip neatly and gently onto a cooling rack, without leaving any fragments stuck to awkward parts of the tin. I use butter for greasing and keep little leftover bits in the refrigerator for this purpose. A small cube of cold butter is easily rubbed back and forth along the inside of a tin to coat it. Always pay special attention to the creases. To flour a tin, sprinkle about 1 tbsp flour in it and shake the tin around so that the flour sticks to the butter and coats it. Hold the tin over the sink and turn it onto its side. Make a circular movement with the tin, while tapping lightly to encourage the flour to move where you want it to. Once the tin is well coated, turn it upside down and tap the base sharply a few times, allowing any excess flour to fall into the sink.
LINING TINS
Sometimes greasing and flouring are not enough. Cakes with a high percentage of chocolate, for instance, or those made with treacle (molasses) can prove to be just that little bit stickier and may cling too much to the sides of the tin. Pieces of fruit in a cake will have the same tendency and once they are firmly stuck, they will remain there and the cake may break when you try to remove it. Lining the tin with baking parchment is the best solution in these cases. Round tins are very easy to line. Simply rest the tin on a piece of baking paper and draw around the base with a pencil. Cut slightly inside this line, especially for springform tins, and you will have a base-liner that fits perfectly. If the side also needs to be lined, you just need to cut a separate strip of the right length (the tin circumference) and height.
A base-liner for a rectangular tin is cut in the same way. To fully line a rectangular tin, place the tin on the baking paper and cut it so that it will be as wide as the bottom width of the tin + the height of two sides, and as long as the bottom length + the height of two sides. In other words, if the bottom of the tin is 20 x 10 cm/ 8 x 4 in, and the sides are 7.5 cm/3 in high, you will need to cut a sheet of paper 35 x 25 cm/14 x 10 in. Rest the tin in the centre of the sheet and cut from each point of the paper to each point of the tin. This works better than cutting away the unused pieces, as there will be less chance of leakage once the paper is in the tin. If the sides of the tin slope, remember to measure the slope, which will be slightly more than the straight height from base to top.
SIFTING
Even if your flour is nice and loose, sift it. Sifting the specified ingredients together mixes them and also introduces some air, making it easier to fold the flour into the rest of the mixture.
SOFTENING BUTTER
Butter should be soft if it is to be creamed with sugar. Leaving the butter at room temperature for a few hours usually works, especially if you live in a warm climate. A microwave oven is my favourite shortcut. Cut the cold butter into cubes and put them on a plate. Put the plate in the microwave and give it short bursts of power a few times, rather than a longer stretch in one go. I never give it more than 20 seconds at a time. Be very careful and check it after each burst, prodding a cube with your finger to see if it is soft enough. The centre of the cubes may melt before the outside disintegrates, and too much heat will make the butter explode in the oven. Remember that you need to soften the butter, not melt it.
CREAMING BUTTER AND SUGAR
‘Light and fluffy’ and ‘lightened in colour’ are indications of how the mixture should look compared to its original state. When the butter and sugar are creamed properly, they form a homogenous mixture and the texture lightens along with the colour, increasing the volume slightly.
Always have your eggs at room temperature for baking. Cold eggs will make the creamed mixture curdle, and this will affect the texture of the cake. If you have to use eggs straight from the refrigerator, put them in a large bowl about 10 minutes beforehand and fill it with hot (not boiling) water to allow the temperature of the eggs to rise. The recipes almost always call for the eggs to be lightly beaten before adding them to the other ingredients. This loosens them up nicely and allows them to be easily incorporated.
WHISKING EGGS
Some of the recipes require eggs and sugar to be whisked until the mixture falls off the whisk in a thick ribbon rather than a thin stream. This means that the volume will have increased considerably, the colour will have become paler and the mixture will be thick enough to fall off the whisk in a wider band (the ribbon) and not simply run off the whisk as a fluid. Always switch off electric mixers before raising the whisk!
FOLDING IN FLOUR
Flour should be gently folded into the rest of the mixture. If you do this too heavy-handedly, you will toughen the structure unnecessarily. A balloon or other large whisk is the best tool for this job. However, do not whisk. Use the whisk as you would a spoon and make gentle circular movements or figures of eight. Stop as soon as you reach the desired consistency.
LEVELLING THE BATTER IN THE TIN
Most cake batters need to be levelled, unless they happen to be so fluid that they will flow into all the corners of their own accord. A few strokes with the straight side of a plastic scraper will level batter in a tin very effectively.
CHECKING FOR DONENESS
Baking times are always approximate, as ovens vary. It is always a good idea to start checking for doneness a few minutes before the time stated in the recipe. Once you have done that a few times, you will be able to make any necessary allowances for future baking sessions. Use wooden skewers or an uncoated metal one. Non-stick skewers are not reliable for this purpose: if they come out clean, it might mean that the batter has simply failed to stick because the non-stick skewer is living up to its name.
INVERTING AND RE-INVERTING
Not all cakes need necessarily be re-inverted so that the top faces upwards again. The bottom is an ideal flat surface for glazing, particularly for square cakes. On the Continent, loaf cakes and many sponge-type cakes are seldom re-inverted; they are usually served upside down for a neater presentation. It is a personal choice.
HOW TO INVERT A CAKE
If you turn a cake tin upside down to invert the cake onto a cooling rack, it will start to fall as soon as you tilt the tin. Sturdy cakes may hold their own, but light-textured ones will not be up to it. The best way to do this is to have two wire cooling racks ready, or a wire rack and a plate large enough to fit the cake. Take one cooling rack (or the plate) and position it upside down over the tin. Grip the edges of the rack (or plate) and cake tin securely with oven mitts or pot cloths and quickly invert the tin. Remove the tin, position the second rack over the bottom of the cake, grip both racks firmly but gently (or hold the plate down) and re-invert so that the bottom of the cake now rests on the second rack. If you have used a springform tin, release the clip and remove the outer ring before taking the steps described above.
COOLING AND KEEPING CAKES
Some cakes are excellent served slightly warm, but on the whole, they need to cool on a wire rack, or condensation will spoil the texture. If you plan to keep the cake, wrap it well as soon as it is cool and store it in a cool place or freeze suitable ones for later. Clingfilm (plastic wrap) provides an excellent protective layer. Even if cakes are to be stored in tins or put into freezer bags or boxes, the extra wrapping will prevent them from drying out too quickly. Portions destined for the freezer can be wrapped individually, making it easy to remove one at a time without exposing the rest.