As a general rule, whether baking from this book or another one, you should read the recipe through from start to finish. Then assemble all the ingredients and tools and set out your measured ingredients in their final form. Take any cold ingredients—butter, eggs, milk—out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you start, so they have time to warm to room temperature, unless the recipe specifies that they should be cold.
Baking is a great creative outlet, but unlike regular cooking, baking requires that measurements be exact, and the recipes are formulas that need to be followed closely. A cake with only a few extra tablespoons of sugar inadvertently added may sink in the center rather than rising properly.
All the recipes in this book use the “scoop and sweep method” for measuring dry ingredients. To do this, scoop up enough of your dry ingredient from its container to pour into the measuring cup so that it overflows slightly. Then sweep the excess back into the canister by running the blade of a straight-edged spatula or the flat edge of a table knife across the measuring cup’s rim. Do the same with measuring spoons for smaller amounts, dipping them directly in the containers.
Measure liquid ingredients in transparent glass or plastic measuring cups (the kind with a handle and a spout) with amounts marked on the sides. Pour the liquid into the measuring cup, place the cup on a level surface, and bend down so that your eye is level with the cup’s markings to ensure that the level of the liquid is even with the line. It’s best to use the smallest cup possible for the amount you want. The more empty space in the measuring cup, the greater the chance of error. For example, if you try to measure ¼ cup water in a 2-cup glass measuring cup and you miss the mark by ⅛ inch, the amount of liquid will be off by about 1 tablespoon, or 25 percent—a large amount in cake-baking terms.
The best way to melt chocolate evenly is by using a double boiler. (Some people have good results with microwave ovens, but power can vary widely from model to model, hot spots are common, and it’s easy to scorch the chocolate in just a few extra seconds.) A double boiler is simply a two-story pan with simmering water in the bottom that gently heats the top pan. A metal bowl set over a larger pan with water serves exactly the same purpose. With either scenario, it’s essential that the bowl or pan with the chocolate be set over—not touching—the water below. Fine chocolate is a delicate ingredient and can scorch easily.
Also, never allow the water underneath to boil; even a stray drop jumping up and mixing with the chocolate will cause it to seize—that is, tighten and dry up. Stir the chocolate occasionally while it is melting and keep a close eye on it. Remove from the heat when there are still a few small lumps, and let stand a minute or two longer; then stir until smooth. Chocolate left over heat too long may turn grainy.
Greasing instructions vary from recipe to recipe. For all butter cakes, plain metal baking pans must be greased or buttered, which means the interior of each pan should be coated evenly with soft unsalted butter. For these cakes, the bottom of each pan is lined with a round of parchment or waxed paper, which is also buttered. In the past, flouring pans was often called for in addition to greasing, but flouring a buttered pan can result in a crumbly crust that makes frosting difficult, so with only a few exceptions, these recipes don’t call for flouring the pans.
Conversely, baking pans for foam cakes—sponge, genoise, and angel food—and chiffon cakes are left ungreased. These cakes actually need to stick to the sides of their pans in order to rise properly. To make it easier to turn out these layers, the bottoms of the pans are lined with parchment or waxed paper. When in doubt, simply follow the instructions for each cake.
If using silicone pans or nonstick metal pans, follow the manufacturer’s instructions, which usually involve misting the interior of the pan with a vegetable-oil cooking spray for butter cakes and leaving it ungreased for foam cakes. (If nonstick pans are dark in color, the manufacturer may recommend reducing the oven temperature by 25 degrees F.)
Unless specified otherwise in the recipe, all batters beaten with a standing electric mixer should be mixed with the paddle attachment. The whip attachment is called for occasionally to beat egg whites and cream.
When mixing cake batter, don’t be tempted to raise the speed above medium, unless instructed to do so. Overbeating causes a dry, dense crumb and a tough cake. The only exception is if you are using a handheld mixer, which might need a little more power. When you’re beating a batter, you’re always looking for a happy medium—a batter that has been beaten long enough so that it’s aerated with lots of the small bubbles that make it rise, but not so long and hard that the flour’s gluten is activated.
Most butter cake recipes in this book use the two-stage method. That means the shortening (usually butter), all the dry ingredients, and some or all of the liquid go into the mixing bowl at the start and are beaten until smooth. That’s the first stage. In the second, once the mixture has been beaten smooth, eggs and any remaining liquid go into the bowl, and the beating continues to aerate the batter. The two-stage method produces a more finely textured cake and is more dependable than the traditional creaming method, which is more familiar to home bakers.
In a few instances, the creaming method is preferable. Here the batter is aerated first by beating softened butter with an electric mixer at low speed until it looks creamy, then by beating in sugar and gradually increasing the mixer’s speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Sometimes the mixture begins to look curdled rather than creamy, but all is not lost. Refrigerate the bowl for 5 to 10 minutes; then beat the mixture again until it looks light and creamy.
For either the two-stage or creaming method, the butter should be at room temperature, 68 to 70 degrees F, so that it is soft enough to trap and hold air, but not so soft that it begins to separate. Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, you should remove butter from the refrigerator 30 to 60 minutes before you will be using it. Professional bakers call the texture of soft butter “plastic,” meaning it’s not melted or separated but soft enough to shape with your hands.
Egg whites are finicky. If there is the tiniest drop of fat or oil on anything they touch, they will refuse to whip to full volume. For this reason, when separating eggs, it’s always best to use a small clean bowl to collect an egg white and transfer it to a larger collective bowl before cracking the next egg. That way, if a little yolk drips into the white by mistake, you’ll only need to toss one egg white—not a whole bowlful.
Whipped egg whites will separate and collapse over time. Cream of tartar and sugar, gradually beaten in, help stabilize them. The way to maximize the rise from beaten egg whites is not to overbeat them. Whip only until peaks are fairly stiff but droop over at the tip, and the egg whites still appear glossy. If you beat until they are completely stiff and at maximum volume, when the cake is baked there is no room for the hot air to expand; the bubbles will break, the batter will lose its structure, and the finished cake will shrink excessively.
Unlike whipped whites, whole eggs are heated before they’re whipped. To do this, put the eggs and sugar in the top half of a double boiler and whisk to combine. Place the pan over barely simmering water and whisk constantly until all the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is lukewarm (100 degrees F), warmer than body temperature. Remove from the heat and, with an electric mixer at medium-high speed, beat the eggs until they’re very fluffy and almost stiff. If you lift the beaters, the batter that falls from them will form a raised ribbon that lies on the surface of the batter before slowly dissolving into it. This is called the ribbon stage.
There’s only one trick to whipping cream: Chill your equipment. Put the bowl (preferably metal) and beaters in the refrigerator or freezer for at least 15 minutes. Keep the cream refrigerated until the last minute. Begin on a slow speed and increase gradually as the cream thickens. Like egg whites, cream is whipped to soft peaks, and occasionally stiff peaks. Overbeating will turn it into butter, so err on the side of caution.
To fold in whipped or dry ingredients (dry items are usually sifted over whipped eggs), push a rubber spatula straight down into the mixture on the far side of the bowl, gradually turn the spatula almost 90 degrees as you draw it toward you across the bottom of the bowl, then lift the spatula through the mixture along the near side, lifting it up and over. Repeat this twice, but the second time, bring the spatula through the middle of the mixture. Now turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat the process. Continue folding and turning the bowl just until no streaks remain.
For triple-layer cakes, it’s very practical to use an 8-cup measuring cup or a batter bowl to divide the batter among the three pans. Simply scrape the batter from the mixing bowl into the cup, divide the amount by 3, then pour one-third into each pan. If the batter is too thick to pour, ladle it into the pans, dividing as evenly as possible. Any slight differences won’t be noticeable once the cake is frosted.
The ideal situation for baking triple-layer cakes is to have a single rack, large enough to hold all three baking pans, set in the middle of the oven. The pans don’t need to be in a row (meaning they can be staggered), but there should be about 1 inch of space between any two pans and between the pans and the walls and door of the oven. If three pans won’t fit on a single rack, use two racks, with the lower one at least 6 inches above the floor of the oven, and the second roughly 4 inches above the first. There should be at least 5 inches between the upper rack and the roof of the oven. Place two pans on the lower rack, toward the back, and the third pan on the upper rack, toward the door. If you can’t fit all three layers in and the batter contains double-acting baking powder, see the sidebar on page 22 for a solution.
Many ovens require a good 15 to 20 minutes, or even more, to reach proper temperature. Always preheat your oven well in advance to avoid putting in a cake at the wrong temperature or having batter sitting around in the pans while you wait for the oven to be ready. Be sure to position the racks as you want them before turning on the oven. In addition, many home ovens are not accurately calibrated and can run up to 25 degrees hotter than stated, so if you don’t own one already, by all means invest in an oven thermometer (see page 35).
Baking times are often stated in a range rather than an exact number. This is to account for variations that can occur due to everything from the thickness of the pan to the day’s humidity to the whims of a particular stove. Once you put the pans in the oven, resist the urge to open and close the door and check on your cake’s progress; you’ll only cause the oven temperature to waver. (Of course, if your oven has a window, feel free to peek as much as you like without opening the door.) At the minimum suggested baking time (or, no matter what the timer says, 5 minutes after the sweet aroma of baking cake has begun to fill the room—always a sure sign), open the oven and test the cake by inserting a toothpick or cake tester into the center. When a cake is done, a toothpick will come out clean, and the cake’s edges will be just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer cake layers from the oven to wire cooling racks. Let butter cakes stand, right-side up, for about 10 minutes. Chiffon and foam cakes should be allowed to cool completely in their pans.
To turn out any type of layer, run a small metal spatula or a dull knife around the perimeter. Then hold the pan at a 45-degree angle just above the cooling rack, so that it is almost upside down. Gently shake the pan or rap its side. If that doesn’t work, give the pan a quarter turn and shake or rap it again. Repeat this process two or three times. If the layer really seems stuck, put the pan back into the oven for a minute or two to soften any sugar sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once they have been turned out of the pans, allow butter cakes to cool completely before proceeding.
If the frosting will simply cover the sides and top of the cake, place the cake on a plate or stand lined around the edge with 4 strips of waxed paper, each about 4 inches wide and 12 inches long. Once you place the cake over the paper, no part of the plate should be visible. After frosting, ease the strips from beneath the cake and discard, leaving behind a clean plate.
Whenever you will need to lift a cake, use a cake board. This is a stiff piece of corrugated cardboard (see page 38) that is designed to support the dessert. Inexpensive and available wherever cake baking and decorating equipment is sold, these boards allow you to pick up the cake for transport or to hold it, if necessary, while you decorate it. Remember, a triple-layer cake can weigh as much as 5 pounds!
All assembly should be done with the flat side (the bottom) of the cake up so that the layers offer a neat appearance. If for some reason a layer bakes up with a high dome, trim it flat with a long serrated knife before filling, so it doesn’t “rock” or create large gaps. Place the first layer flat-side up on your cake stand or serving plate. Sweep away any crumbs with a pastry brush. Place the filling in the center of the layer and begin pushing and spreading the filling toward the edges with a long, narrow metal spatula, preferably one with an offset or angled blade. Use the edge of the spatula, taking care not to touch the cake with the blade. Smooth the filling with the flat side of the blade.
Here’s a good rule of thumb when filling cakes: If the filling and frosting are not the same, leave a ¼-inch margin around the edge of each layer. When you’re using the same mixture to fill and frost the cake, spread the filling right to the edge.
When frosting a dark-colored cake with a white or light-colored frosting, you may want to apply a crumb coat first, a thin underlayer of frosting that seals in the crumbs. To apply a crumb coat, brush off loose crumbs with a pastry brush. If possible, place the cake on a revolving cake stand (see page 39); it makes decorating much easier. Set aside 1 to 1 ¼ cups frosting for an 8-inch cake, about 1 ½ cups for a 9-inch cake, so that the remainder does not get contaminated with cake crumbs. Use a long offset spatula to spread the frosting thinly over the top and sides of the cake. Spread the frosting with the spatula, smoothing it to cover the cake as thinly as possible. Chill the cake for 30 minutes to 1 hour, or until the crumb coat sets before finishing the frosting.
To apply a finish coat of frosting, with or without a crumb coat underneath, place a generous amount of frosting on top of the cake, then gently spread the frosting until it reaches slightly over the edge. Leave the slight overhang and work down the sides next. Spread the frosting in one direction only, rotating the cake as you work and adding additional frosting as needed. Apply a bit more frosting than you need. Then go back and, with your long spatula, smooth it out on the sides first. As excess frosting collects on the spatula, return it to the bowl. A ridge will form at the top edge.
To smooth the top, hold the spatula at the far edge of the cake, parallel to the top, and swipe it straight toward you to the center of the cake, removing the ridge from the edge first. Rotate the cake and clean off the blade by returning excess frosting to the bowl and wiping the spatula clean between strokes. Finally, smooth the center. For a very finished sleek effect, heat the spatula under hot water and wipe dry; then run over the cake to smooth the frosting to a glossy shine.
If you want some texture to your frosting, as opposed to a smooth, sleek look, use an icing comb to make interesting ridges, concentric circles, or wavy patterns. A revolving cake stand, or turntable, will give you an even design, which works well for lines and circles; freehand is fun for waves or more creative designs. You can also use the tip of a spoon or a small offset spatula to make swirls in the frosting or draw it up into little peaks.
One of the easiest ways to make a cake attractive is to decorate the top and/or sides with an ingredient that offers a clue to what is in the cake: shredded coconut, chopped nuts, chocolate curls, berries, or slices of fruit, for example. Edible (that is, nontoxic) flowers, like roses, violets, pansies, lavender, and certain orchids, or candied flowers make lovely displays. Check with your local florist, making sure the flowers haven’t been treated or sprayed. Or look in a gourmet green-grocer, where many edible blossoms are often sold in the salad section.
When decorating a cake, never fill a pastry bag more than halfway with frosting. With one hand, twist the bag above the frosting and hold it tightly to maintain pressure. Squeeze the bag with the other hand. Always squeeze from behind the frosting; if you squeeze in the middle, it will come out the back of the bag as well as the tip.
A shell border is a classic cake decoration used in several of the cakes in this book. To create a shell border, first fit the pastry bag with a ¼- to ⅜-inch star tip and fill the bag halfway with frosting. Hold the bag with the tip pointing straight down at the cake. Squeeze out a small ball of frosting. When you reach the desired size, reduce the pressure on the bag and at the same time, push the tip down and pull it up and away slightly, creating a small tail. Form the next shell on the tail of the first. Repeat as needed to make a border. You may want to try a practice chain on a sheet of waxed paper before decorating a cake. The practice frosting can be reused.
Fondant comes in a thick block that must be kneaded until pliable before it can be rolled out. You want to work the fondant just until malleable; if it is overworked, it will soften too much and air bubbles can develop. If rolled thin, it offers a lovely neat, smooth finish to any cake without adding undo sweetness. But if you roll fondant too thin, it will be hard to handle and will tear. Fondant does not patch the way dough does, but you can always pipe over small imperfections.
Roll out fondant, as you would a pie crust, on a smooth work surface, such as marble or Formica. Instead of flour, though, dust the work surface and the fondant lightly with sifted confectioners’ sugar; also dust the top of the fondant. This sifting is important to avoid any lumps, because fondant is unforgiving, and these lumps will leave little pit marks when rolled out. If the fondant becomes sticky, knead in a little sifted confectioners’ sugar.
Professionals make paper-thin chocolate curls by dragging a large chef’s knife toward themselves across a thick block of chocolate weighing at least 5 pounds. The weight of the chocolate is needed to give you the surface space to maneuver. Since most home bakers don’t have large blocks of chocolate in the house, here are some alternative methods.
Melt some chocolate carefully in a double boiler so it doesn’t lose its shine, and spread it thinly on a cookie sheet or the bottom of a cake pan. When the chocolate sets, scrape it off with a plastic paint scraper or spackle knife to make long ribbons of chocolate. Gently shape the ribbons, transfer them to a covered container, and refrigerate to harden; then break up into smaller pieces. This is a good technique for making large chocolate ruffles, as well.
Shaving down the side of a chunk of dark chocolate with a swivel-bladed vegetable peeler offers a simpler method that yields smaller curls.
With either method, temperature is key to success. If the chocolate is too warm, the ribbon will smear. If it’s too hard, it will come up in shards, which are usable but don’t look as pretty.
To avoid tearing the crumb, always cut cake with a sharp serrated knife. Because these three-layered beauties are so large, you’ll need a long blade. Have a tall glass of warm water at hand, along with a clean towel; dip and wipe the blade between cuts.