The Baking Answer Book (27 page)

Q
What’s the best way to remove cookies from a baking sheet?

A
The most foolproof method is to line your baking sheets with parchment and simply slide the parchment from the baking sheet to a wire rack as soon as the cookies are out of the oven.

CHAPTER 7
Cakes

Nothing signals the celebratory nature of baking like cake. Whether it’s the simplest snack cake received with shouts of anticipation by your children after a long day at school, a layer cake burning bright with birthday candles, or an elaborate wedding cake baked by a member of the wedding party, cakes make every occasion more special. Everyone loves cake, and to be able to bake a beautiful example and share it with family and friends is truly the baker’s joy.

In this chapter, we will discuss every step on the way to this happy moment, from greasing your cake pan to whipping your eggs to the ribbon stage to filling and frosting and storing your cake until it’s time to eat. When you have all the answers to your cake-baking questions, you will be ready to plan your next party with aplomb.

Q
Are nonstick pans better than regular pans for cake baking?

A
Shiny aluminum baking pans are fine, but for ease of use, nonstick pans can’t be beat. I’ve recently traded in most of my old aluminum cake pans (many of which had warped after years of use) for a set of Chicago Metallic Professional bakeware with a bonded nonstick surface (see Resources). Not only do these pans guarantee an easy release, but they are easier to clean than my old pans. The one caveat is that because these pans have a darker surface than traditional baking pans, they retain heat better and tend to brown cakes faster than my old pans. For cakes that take an hour or more to bake (such as large Bundt cakes), I’ll adjust my recipe by turning the oven temperature down 25°F (4°C), so that the cake crust doesn’t overbrown.

Q
Do nonstick pans still need to be greased?

A
Manufacturers will tell you it’s not necessary, but I always grease nonstick cake pans, just to be safe. Remember, this advice is for cake pans, not baking sheets. Greasing nonstick baking sheets, and especially spraying them with cooking spray, will create a sticky mess on their surface that is difficult to remove.

Q
Which is the best grease for a cake pan — butter, vegetable shortening, or cooking spray?

A
Some bakers prefer butter for flavor reasons, but butter can be unreliable, sometimes releasing your cake from the pan and sometimes holding onto portions of it. I use butter only when I’m greasing one of my nonstick pans, and know that I’ll need just a little extra insurance that my cake will release easily. Nonstick vegetable shortening is a better bet for most pans. It’s flavorless and guarantees that your cake will slide right out of any pan. Avoid vegetable oil, which can burn and can give your finished cake an unpleasant aroma and flavor.

If a recipe instructs you to grease and flour a pan, you might consider using a spray like Baker’s Joy, a nonstick cooking spray with added flour, which does the job in just one step. Regular cooking spray can bead up on nonstick surfaces and will bond with added flour to form a greasy film on the surface of your cake; sprays like Baker’s Joy will be invisible on the surface of your cake when it easily releases from the pan.

Q
What is the best way to prepare a cake pan for baking? Is dusting the inside with flour really necessary?

A
Prepare your pan depending upon what kind of cake you are baking and what kind of pan you are using. For
many cakes, greasing the inside of the pan will be enough to release the cake cleanly. But if you’ve ever had a cake stick to the sides of the pan, you will probably want to take the precaution of greasing and flouring. It is especially important if your cake is high in sugar, because as the sugar on the surface of the cake caramelizes during baking, it will try to bond itself to the pan. The flour will form a barrier between the cake and the pan, preventing sticking.

All cake pans, whether or not they have a nonstick surface, should be greased. (There are just a couple of exceptions; see
page 198
, on angel food cakes.) Whether or not they should be dusted with flour, too, depends on a couple of things.

Cakes with a relatively high sugar content will be stickier and more difficult to remove from pans than cakes with less sugar, because their crusts will be more sticky from caramelization. So it’s a good idea to flour pans in addition to greasing if your recipe contains a lot of sugar.

Cakes baked in pans with intricate patterns, such as specialty Bundt pans, should also be floured as well as greased, since cake batter will tend to stick to the crevices otherwise. For flat-bottomed layer cake pans, I suggest greasing, flouring, and then lining the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper and greasing and flouring the paper. It is a lot easier to peel the piece of paper from the bottom of the cake than it is to scrape the bottom of the cake from the pan and reattach it to the rest of the cake.

Q
Why must an angel food cake be baked in a special pan?

A
Angel food cakes and most chiffon cakes are baked in a tube pan with tall sides and metal “feet” extending from the top edge of the pan. These features allow the cake to reach and maintain its full volume. The central tube of the pan distributes heat evenly, allowing the cake to rise quickly before the egg whites can deflate. While you would grease the sides and bottom of the pan for other cake recipes, you leave the pan ungreased when making angel food cake, to allow the batter to cling to the sides of the pan as it rises, another strategy for producing a well-risen cake. Upon pulling it from the oven, you must immediately turn the cake over onto its feet, so that as it cools, gravity will prevent it from shrinking. For the same reason, you should leave the sides (but not the bottom) of a jelly-roll pan ungreased when baking a roulade. You want the batter to cling to the sides of the pan to maintain its full volume.

Q
Why do cake recipes often call for ingredients at room temperature?

A
Ingredients at room temperature — between 65 and 70°F (18–21°C) — will emulsify more easily than chilled
ingredients. A successful emulsion will result in a cake with a light, rather than dense texture. But be sure that your ingredients aren’t too warm, or they may cause the air cells in your creamed butter to dissolve, also resulting in a dense cake.

Q
What is cake flour? Should it be used in all cakes?

A
Cake flour is a low-protein flour made from soft wheat. It is generally treated with chlorine, which not only bleaches it a snowy white color but also breaks down proteins to inhibit gluten development during mixing, making it even softer. Because it won’t develop as much gluten as all-purpose flour, it is called for in cake recipes where a tender crumb and delicate texture are desired. It’s not right for all cakes, however. Batters that support heavy ingredients such as nuts and dried fruits, for example, need a sturdier structure than what cake flour will provide.

SEE ALSO:
Flour and flour substitutes,
page 7
.

Q
What is the difference between cake flour and pastry flour?

A
Pastry flour has a protein content of between 8% and 10% and hasn’t been chlorinated, making it softer than all-purpose flour but harder than cake flour. It generally isn’t used to bake cakes, but is sometimes called for in pie dough
and cookie recipes where a tender result is desired along with some crispness and structure. Pastry flour is a rarity in supermarkets, while cake flour and all-purpose flour are widely available. If you come upon a recipe requiring pastry flour but can’t find it at your market, you can approximate its protein content by mixing 1
cups of all-purpose flour with
cup of cake flour for every 2 cups of pastry flour called for.

Q
Are génoise and yellow cake interchangeable in layer cake recipes?

A
Although both génoise and yellow cake are generally baked in round pans, split into layers, and filled and frosted to create layer cakes, they have very different texture profiles, and require different treatments when layering. Génoise is relatively dry and light. Thus it is often soaked with a flavorful syrup and filled and frosted with egg-enriched meringue buttercream to add richness. Butter cake won’t soak up any syrup, as it is saturated with moisture from butter and milk. Butter cakes are better when filled and frosted with a lighter style of buttercream made by whipping butter with confectioners’ sugar or with a whipped chocolate ganache.

VARIETIES OF CAKE

Cakes can be divided into three basic classifications, with many subclassifications. Understanding the difference between foam cakes, shortened cakes, and custard-based cakes, and being able to determine which category the cake you are making belongs to, will help you understand how your recipe works.

Foam Cakes

Foam cakes have little or no fat and a high proportion of eggs to flour. They are generally leavened by the air beaten into the eggs or egg whites. In this category are:

Sponge
(sometimes called biscuit). Sponge cake is made by folding together flour, egg yolks, and sugar whipped to the ribbon stage, and stiffly beaten egg whites. The recipe can be varied by adding finely chopped nuts, citrus zest, liqueurs, or extracts. Sometimes served plain, it can also be soaked with a flavored sugar syrup before being layered with whipped cream, buttercream, or fruit preserves, and frosted.

Roulade.
A roulade is a sponge cake baked in a jelly-roll pan and rolled up into a cylinder while still warm. When the cake is cooled, it is unrolled and filled with mousse, ganache, buttercream, Bavarian cream, or another filling, and rerolled.

Génoise.
A slightly richer and more tender foam cake than sponge, génoise is made by whipping whole rather than separated eggs with sugar. Very often some melted butter is added to the batter for richness. Génoise is usually baked in a round cake pan and split into two layers, which can be soaked with syrup and filled and frosted in myriad ways.

Chiffon.
Chiffon cakes rely on whipped egg whites and some baking powder for their rise. Dry ingredients are mixed with oil, egg yolks, and flavorings, and then whipped egg whites are folded in. Chiffon is similar to butter cake in richness and moisture content because it contains oil, but it is easier to make because there is no creaming.