Rose's Heavenly Cakes (3 page)

My goal in writing this second cake book is to continue to share the incredible, extraordinary, and unequaled joy of cake eating and baking. Here are some of the special highlights you will find in this book:

• A collection of moist cakes that have a long shelf life, such as the Orange-Glow Chiffon as a layer cake and the Shamah Chiffon, also as a layer cake but with the addition of almonds.

• Four exceptionally moist new wedding cakes with a long shelf life: the Grand Marnier (much beloved from
The Cake Bible,
where it was baked in a fluted tube pan), the Golden Dream (for lemon lovers who prefer cake with no alcohol), a banana butter cake with passion mousseline, and the most amazing of all chocolate cakes, the Deep Chocolate Passion.

• A fabulously chocolaty groom's cake (the Double-Chocolate-Whammy) that has chunks of rich brownie suspended within the chocolate cake.

• The Black Chocolate Party Cake with cocoa glaze, so delicious and dark that it's almost black.

• The most-tender-possible sponge cakes, including angel food, ladyfingers, biscuit de Savoie, and génoise, using magical Wondra flour.

• A collection of favorite flourless and mostly flourless cakes: new cheesecakes, nut cakes, chocolate cakes, and even the drop-dead delicious chocolate blackberry mousse cake, Zach's La Bomba.

• A chocolate lacquer glaze from Japan, so brilliantly shiny that it resembles a baby grand piano.

• A new technique for making everyone's favorite, but sometimes temperamental, buttercream—mousseline—almost foolproof.

• A fabulously creamy and delicious white chocolate cream cheese frosting that I have to call Dreamy Creamy.

• Spectacular decorating ideas such as crystallized roses made of lemon or orange peel.

This is just a sampling of what is included. Turn the page. There is so much more.

Rose's Rules of Cake Baking

Cake baking is really very easy, but it is the little things that make the difference between ordinary and extraordinary. Here are the rules I use in my kitchen every day, my ten golden rules of baking.

FLOUR.
Be sure to use the flour specified in the recipe. Bleached cake flour and bleached all-purpose flour can be used interchangeably when either is indicated as long as the weight used is the same. If you plan to use a volume measure instead, you will find it listed on the ingredient charts. If a recipe calls for cake flour as the first choice, using it results in a more tender crumb, so if you desire to achieve this level of tenderness, and you have only bleached all-purpose flour, you will need to use the suggested amount of cornstarch in place of some of the all-purpose flour or a slight increase in baking powder (see
Ingredient Equivalencies and Substitutions
). Do not, however, substitute cake flour in recipes calling only for all-purpose flour as the cakes will be too tender and fragile.

I also use Wondra flour (see
Flour
). It is the ideal flour for sponge cakes such as génoise, biscuit, and chiffons, except for chocolate ones. The slight decrease of 1/8 to ¼ inch in height in these cakes baked in 9 by 2-inch round cake pans is more than compensated for by the exquisite tenderness and airiness of texture, and the superior flavor. Cakes baked in sheet pans lose about 1/8 inch in height, so I prefer cake flour or a combination of cake flour and cornstarch in these cases, especially if the cake will be rolled; it gives the rolled cake a much more attractive appearance. As for replacing bleached cake flour or bleached all-purpose flour, substitute equal weights of Wondra (for volume measures, see
Ingredient Equivalencies and Substitutions
).

BUTTER.
Use high-quality unsalted butter with standard fat content unless high butterfat is called for in the recipe. Most of the cakes in this book require standard AA-grade unsalted butter. Unsalted butter is preferable because it makes it easier to control the amount of salt added to the cake and because of its fresher flavor. I recommend high-quality butter such as Organic Valley Cultured, Hotel Bar, or Land O' Lakes. When butter is used in its solid form, it is essential that the butter be cool room temperature (65° to 75°F/19° to 23°C).

EGGS.
Use USDA-grade large eggs for most recipes and weigh or measure the volume. The weight of the eggs and thickness of the shell can vary a great deal from egg to egg, even within a given grade. The correct amount of whole eggs, yolks, or whites is essential to the volume and texture of a cake. The ratio of white to yolk can vary to such a degree that a recipe calling for six yolks may need as many as ten. To achieve the ideal results, weigh or measure whole eggs—yolks and whites. Values for recipes in this book are given for weight and volume, so it's fine to use any size eggs if you weigh and measure them. The weights for eggs are always without the shells. Use eggs at room temperature: Place the eggs, still in their unbroken shells, in hot water for five minutes.

CREAM OF TARTAR FOR BEATING EGG WHITES.
Use 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar per egg white. This magic formula stabilizes the egg whites so that you can achieve maximum volume without ever drying them out and deflating them by overbeating. Add the cream of tartar with the beater off and after the egg whites start to foam. Do not add more than this recommended amount as it will
de
stabilize the egg whites. It is also important to remember that there must not be even a trace of fat on the bowl, beater, or in the egg white itself (this includes even a speck of yolk) or the egg white will not increase in volume. Use beaten egg whites as soon as possible after beating them or they will start to stiffen and break down when being folded into another mixture.

CHOCOLATE.
Use the cacao content that I specify in the recipe. If cacao content is not indicated on the package label, you can evaluate the percentage by taste comparison. There is a vast range of percentage of cacao versus sugar in what are usually labeled dark or bittersweet chocolate, which is why I've listed the recommended percentage for each recipe that calls for chocolate. If you use chocolate that is higher in chocolate components (cocoa solids and cocoa butter) and lower in sugar than is called for in a recipe, the cake will have a heavier texture and a bitter taste, and the buttercream or ganache will have a stiffer texture. The reason is that, in effect, you are adding more chocolate and less sugar to the recipe (see
Chocolate
).

WEIGHING OR MEASURING.
Use care when you weigh or measure your ingredients. Doing so helps you achieve consistent flavor and texture. Weighing ingredients is faster and easier, but measuring will produce just as good a cake, providing you measure carefully. Dry ingredients such as flour and sugar should be measured in solid measuring cups, that is, ones with unbroken rims (see
Equipment
).

Sifting into the measuring cup and leveling off the excess flour with a long metal spatula or knife, without tapping the cup, is the most accurate way to measure flour and will result in the correct amount compared with scooping the cup into the flour or even lightly spooning the flour into the cup and leveling it off, both of which will result in a much greater weight of flour, which will produce a denser and drier cake (see
How to Measure Ingredients
). If measuring liquids such as water, milk, sticky syrups, and juices, use a measuring cup with a spout designed for measuring liquids and read the volume at eye level from the bottom of the meniscus (the curved upper surface of the liquid). Be sure to set the cup on a solid surface at eye level,
not
in your hand, which won't be as level a surface.

MIXING.
Mixing ingredients on low speed in a stand mixer and gradually increasing speed, as I indicate in the recipes, will keep the ingredients from jumping out of the bowl. On a KitchenAid stand mixer, low means number 2; medium-low, number 3; medium, number 4; medium-high, numbers 7 and 8; high, number 10. On a Cuisinart stand mixer, I use number 6 for medium. If you are using a handheld mixer, use a higher speed than specified and a longer beating time. With both methods, it's important to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that the batter on the sides gets mixed in evenly. Be sure to reach to the bottom of the bowl, especially when using the stand mixer.

FILLING THE PAN.
Unless otherwise specified, fill the pan no less than half and no more than two-thirds full. The batter in fluted tube pans is an exception, as the pan is usually filled to about one inch from the top. (Avoid adding more batter because it could overflow and cause the cake to collapse.) The correct amount of batter for a specified pan size will affect the texture of the cake.

Batters maintain their leavening power effectively (whether the leavening is beaten egg or chemical leavening such as baking powder, baking soda, or both) when transferred to the pan immediately after mixing. Avoid refrigerating the batter in a bowl as it will lose leavening power.

BAKING.
Preheat the Oven for a minimum of twenty minutes before baking. Use the correct oven temperature and, for proper air circulation, bake as close to the center of the oven as possible. When you transfer a batter leavened only with beaten egg into the pan, bake it as soon as possible after mixing because it maintains its leavening power most effectively this way. Chemically leavened batters (leavened with baking powder, baking soda, or both), however, can be held in the pan refrigerated for up to an hour if oven space does not allow for baking all the batter at once.

Cake pans should bake no closer than one inch from the walls of the oven and from each other. If you have an oven with sufficient internal height, the racks can be set just below and just above the middle position and the pans staggered so that one is not directly on top of the one on the rack below. To assure a level top and even front-to-back baking, unless the oven has a turntable, it is advisable to turn the cake halfway around, quickly and gently, after two-thirds of the estimated baking time.

STORING.
Cool cakes completely on wire racks and store them airtight. Once a cake has been cut, place a piece of plastic wrap against each side of the open cuts to keep the cake from drying. Cakes also stay freshest if they are covered with a cake dome. (For more storage options, see
Storing a Cake
.)

Guidelines For Storing Cakes And Frosting at around 70°F/21°C

Times will vary depending on room or refrigerator/freezer temperature

Chapter 1: Butter and Oil Cakes

The butter cakes in this chapter are those that are made with butter in its solid form as opposed to those made with melted or clarified butter, such as a génoise, which are in the Sponge Cakes chapter. Most of the cakes here rely on chemical leavening (baking powder, baking soda, or both) for their soft, velvety textures. Flavorful, moist, and tender, yet substantial and satisfying, most of these cakes are quick and easy to make. The best part is that several of them take their shape from the fluted designs of the pans they are baked in, and are so moist and delicious that they need no further adornment or frosting. Of course, there are some fabulous new buttercreams and ganaches to go along with the time-honored cakes that everyone loves, and many exciting variations as well.

This chapter also includes five fabulous and quintessential oil cakes: for example, a groundbreaking, astonishingly fudgy and tender chocolate cake that is the base for a luscious German chocolate cake; a moist and mellow banana cake; and a classic carrot cake, all of which are, unlike butter cakes, soft enough to eat straight out of the refrigerator. Though butter offers more flavor than oil, oil cakes have the advantage of being exceptionally moist and tender while staying softer when chilled. Because of the extra tenderness, it is important to use all-purpose flour, which gives them more structure.

Most of the cakes in this chapter are enjoyable soon after baking and, depending on how you store them, also the following day(s). Refrigeration obviously extends their shelf life. (For the softest texture, the cakes made with butter should be brought to room temperature before serving.) With or without refrigeration, they change in texture from very soft and tender with a crisp crust to a softer crust and a firmer and easier-to-slice crumb the following day.

The Special Two-Stage Mixing Technique

This method of mixing batter, described below and used so successfully in commercial baking with high-ratio shortening, is the method I adapted for
The Cake Bible
twenty years ago.

I find it to be faster, easier, and better—it produces a finer, more velvety crumb. The two stipulations about using it are that the butter needs to be no colder than 65°F/19°C and no warmer than 75°F/23°C. Also, the eggs must always be at room temperature in order to achieve the best texture in the finished cake.