Crying in My Cake. Very embarrassing.

[Brooksy]

Having strung 6 bread baking successes together I decided it was time to have a go at something new.
Cakes.
Who first let men into the kitchen?

I was given a "tried & true", "never fail", "Trust me, even a fool can bake this cake" basic cake recipe: equal measures by weight of egg, sugar, AP flour, butter. To this add your flavoring.

As given
3 X 60gm eggs
180gms sugar
Etc
2 tsp vanilla ext

Method
Cream butter, sugar & vanilla, add 1 egg at a time with third of flour ensuring batter doesn't separate, when mixed transfer batter to a greased tin and bake 350 deg (wasn't given a time).

Carried out the above instructions to the 'T', watched and waited.

At the 30 min mark I though it a good idea to do what I do when baking bread, I rotated the pan 180 deg. BIG MISTAKE. It went down so quick I named it 'The Linda Lovelace Cake".

My questions are:
How long should the batter be mixed and at what speed?
As a kid we used to beat it for about 4 mins on high (twin beater) after eggs added, & this time I only gave it about a minute or so & about 75% speed using a single loop/knife type blade.

Temp & time? Is there a formula for total weight, temp & time to ensure a successful bake?

The AP flour I have is almost bread flour - 10.0% (it shocked me too when I read it).

Brooksy

 

[jasonr]

If I had to guess, I'd say your problem is simply that you were too rough rotating the cake in the oven. Some cakes are delicate, and will deflate if they are mishandled. Are you sure you had the right temperature? Do you use an oven thermometer?

You have to provide the exact recipe, as written, including the detailed and specific instructions provided. You didn't mention any leavening agent. Is this a mechanically leavened cake like a genoise, or did you forget to mention the baking soda/powder? If it is a genoise, you must beat the egg mixture with the whisk until it has tripled in volume; your whisk should leave a trail in the mixture. I don't know what your recipe says, but you should very gently fold the well-sifted flour into the mixture after it has been whipped. That is, of course, assuming it is a genoise or genoise type cake. Without more info, it's impossible to know.

 

[Brooksy]

jasonr,
Consider this a line of s.

1.5tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp Carb soda.

No I don't have an oven thermometer, just rely on the thermostat.

I shouldna touched it. I must have been on auto pilot, or in my case "auto flop" mode.

I still reckon womens' greatest mistake was letting men in the kitchen


I'm off to look for an oven thermometer.

Brooksy

 

[jasonr]

Oh, well if it's just a regular chemically leavened cake, then things are much simpler. Yeah, you're probably right; you should have left it alone, LOL. Sometimes cakes just flop, what can you do?

 

[Brooksy]

Sorry Jasonr I hit the post button beforw I'd finished.

The recipe was WOM and the method iterated was pretty much as told.

Cream together sugar, butter & vanilla.
Add an egg while beating and it will separate, add 1/3 of the flour and the mixture will come together, add the next egg & 1/3 flour & mix til it comes together, add last egg & last of flour & mix til it comes together & transfer to baking container.

10.0% protein in the AP flour has me a bit concerned though, it's almost bread flour (my white bread flour is 11.0%).

I went looking for Genoise because I hdidn't have a clue what it meant, and found: http://www.sallys-place.com/food/columns/braker/genoise.htm

Check it out. Appears totally different to what was being explained to me, but the same. Sounds crazy but.........

Has anyone done this type & can post a pic of the result? It is a great benefit to see a final result and work to it.

We plebs do it hard.

Brooksy

 

[WayneT]

Do not open the oven when cooking your cakes unless you are cooking in a microwave oven. Apart from temp loss, just the slight vibration is sometimes enough to deflate. Often in the last 6 minutes or so it can be done if the cake is set, but unless you know your oven is cooking unevenly to the extent of possibly burning a portion I would leave it well alone. I use the unbleached flour from Aldi's. Cheap and wonderful. I have no Idea what protein level it is and I have no interest in finding out, all I know is it is cheap and makes wonderful bread and cakes. I use it exclusively. Maybe I could get a sponsorship!!

 

[jasonr]

"Has anyone done this type & can post a pic of the result? It is a great benefit to see a final result and work to it."

You have undoubtedly already seen this cake about a million times in your life, as it is one of the most common cake bases in existence. Ironically, I'm finding it hard to describe it, nevertheless It is light, fluffy, and dry on its own, which is why you need to use a cake syrup to moisten it and give it flavor. Here is an image I found on google.

http://pastryhajimenoippo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/genoise-062403-03.jpg

The nice thing about cakes is that it's one of the few places where you don't have to be married to a recipe. Once you have a few basic cake bases mastered, you can just mix and match, and make your own recipes. Genoise is like the utility man on the baseball team; it can play any position and be used in almost any context. The classic thing to do with one would be to cut it into two layers, brush it with vanilla syrup, and then fill and frost it with chocolate buttercream.... mmmm.... buttercream

 

[chefcyn]

pound cake!

Your recipe isounds like it's for a good old fashioned Pound Cake--so named because the traditional recipe calls for a pound of eggs, pound of butter, pound of sugar and pound of flour (less gluten/protein is better, but I find that cake/pastry flour is too light and can't hold the weight--so AP flour is good) plus vanilla or other flavoring extract.

The technique is the thing that gives it rise and structure--the butter and sugar must be creamed--beaten at medium high speed until light and fluffy, then the eggs added in one at a time and beaten well, then the flavoring(1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, or the flavor of your choice), then the flour folded in gently. If you beat it after adding the flour it will lose some of it's air and go flat and dense.
The batter is then scraped into the prepared pans(usually two loaf pans or a bundt pan that has been greased and floured. Then baked at 350deg F for 40-55 min. A tester stuck in the middle should come out clean.

Cooled in the opan for a few minutes, then turned out onto their sides on a rack to cool completely. The bundt pan version is inverted and cooled on a rack.

 

[aruzinsky]

Re: pound cake!

Your recipe isounds like it's for a good old fashioned Pound Cake--so named because the traditional recipe calls for a pound of eggs, pound of butter, pound of sugar and pound of flour (less gluten/protein is better, but I find that cake/pastry flour is too light and can't hold the weight--so AP flour is good) plus vanilla or other flavoring extract.

The technique is the thing that gives it rise and structure--the butter and sugar must be creamed--beaten at medium high speed until light and fluffy, then the eggs added in one at a time and beaten well, then the flavoring(1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, or the flavor of your choice), then the flour folded in gently. If you beat it after adding the flour it will lose some of it's air and go flat and dense.
The batter is then scraped into the prepared pans(usually two loaf pans or a bundt pan that has been greased and floured. Then baked at 350deg F for 40-55 min. A tester stuck in the middle should come out clean.

Cooled in the opan for a few minutes, then turned out onto their sides on a rack to cool completely. The bundt pan version is inverted and cooled on a rack.

Except Brooksy's recipe is leavened with baking soda & powder. Here is a recipe for pound cake from The American Woman's Cook Book that is leavened by whipped eggwhites:

1 lb butter
1 lb sifted cake flour
1 lb sugar
10 separated eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter, gradually add flour until meally. Beat yolks, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually beat in first mixture. Fold in stiffly beaten eggwhites. Beat vigorisly 5 min.. Bake in 2 8" x 4" loaf pans lined with waxed paper at 325 deg. F., 1.25 hrs..

I never made this but it seems to me that, if you beat vigorously for 5 min., then there is no point to folding and you can just dump in the beaten eggwhites any old way. (folding preserves air bubbles, beating reduces it) Probably, there is no point to separating the eggs, which is why your recipe doesn't.

 

[Brooksy]

Thanks very much guys (& Gals). great help, great suggestions.

Looking at these recipes, it seems that the ingedients can be ratioed to fit the desired pan(s). Folding flour or egg whites is scary for this "dump & burn" wannabe, but as soon as my wife forgives me for the mess in the kitchen yesterday, I'll give them a shot for sure.

I did the unspeakable yesterday. I decided in desperation to buy a premix choc cake (Cadbury Velvet) w ganache. Chocolate everywhere! All I had to do was look at it & choc would fly all over the place. Turned out ok but not a real cake. Heaps of great stuff here, it is just a matter of getting the procedure right.

Brooksy

 

[jasonr]

"I did the unspeakable yesterday. I decided in desperation to buy a premix choc cake (Cadbury Velvet) w ganache."

A cake mix?! Blasphemous! I'm sorry, but we're going to have to do to you what they did to Mel Gibson in that Mad Max movie. You will get exiled into the desert with a big thing tied to your head, never to return again. A cake mix, tsk, tsk....

 

[aruzinsky]

"I did the unspeakable yesterday. I decided in desperation to buy a premix choc cake (Cadbury Velvet) w ganache."

A cake mix?! Blasphemous! I'm sorry, but we're going to have to do to you what they did to Mel Gibson in that Mad Max movie. You will get exiled into the desert with a big thing tied to your head, never to return again. A cake mix, tsk, tsk....

I feel more that way about mixed spices. If you look on the ingredient label of a cake mix, you will probably find ingredients that you do not have easy access to, in pure form. That, alone, partially justifies using cake mix.

What I object to is not having easy access to all such food ingredients, both natural and synthetic, in their pure state. Also, there are no cookbooks with recipes using such ingredients, e.g. methyl cellulose. It must be part of a Big Brother conspiracy to dominate the World and turn its occupants into mindless drones!

 

[jasonr]

"What I object to is not having easy access to all such food ingredients, both natural and synthetic, in their pure state"

LOL! I'm sorry, but you're the first person I've ever met who advocated store bought goods over homemade to get access to all those tasty additives and preservatives that you just can't find in the local supermarket

"there are no cookbooks with recipes using such ingredients, e.g. methyl cellulose"

This reminds me of a funny story from high school. In a french class, we were asked to buddy up with a partner and together bake a recipe for something. (If you're wondering what the heck this has to do with french, I believe we had to write a report on the experience in french, or some such thing) Anyway, my buddy said he had the best recipe for something or other, so I decided he would give me the ingredients, and then we could tell them to my grandmother, and she would help us make the recipe. Anyway, I read off these ingredients to my grandmother, and she couldn't figure out what I was talking about, because they were all stuff like methyl cellulose and whatnot. It turns out that the fool had just taken the back of the box of a Pillsbury dessert or some such thing and read off the ingredient list, just assuming that we could kind of put it all together in a pot and PRESTO, chocolate cake! Needless to say, my grandmother gave us a real recipe, which we made instead

 

[aruzinsky]

"What I object to is not having easy access to all such food ingredients, both natural and synthetic, in their pure state"

LOL! I'm sorry, but you're the first person I've ever met who advocated store bought goods over homemade to get access to all those tasty additives and preservatives that you just can't find in the local supermarket

"there are no cookbooks with recipes using such ingredients, e.g. methyl cellulose"

This reminds me of a funny story from high school. In a french class, we were asked to buddy up with a partner and together bake a recipe for something. (If you're wondering what the heck this has to do with french, I believe we had to write a report on the experience in french, or some such thing) Anyway, my buddy said he had the best recipe for something or other, so I decided he would give me the ingredients, and then we could tell them to my grandmother, and she would help us make the recipe. Anyway, I read off these ingredients to my grandmother, and she couldn't figure out what I was talking about, because they were all stuff like methyl cellulose and whatnot. It turns out that the fool had just taken the back of the box of a Pillsbury dessert or some such thing and read off the ingredient list, just assuming that we could kind of put it all together in a pot and PRESTO, chocolate cake! Needless to say, my grandmother gave us a real recipe, which we made instead

So, you milk your own cow, separate the cream, and churn your own butter? If not, why should it be any different with methyl celullose?

The reason that hardly anyone wants access to these ingredients is:

1. Peer pressure, i.e. monkey see, monkey do.

2. They do not know the purposes of the ingredients.

3. Most people NEVER give it any serious thought. Do they think that the professionals who develop the formulations listed on almost every processed food that they eat are fools or idiots?

4. The FDA forbids sale to consumers of many food ingredients in pure form.

It is not enough that you obey Big Brother, you must love Big Brother.

 

[jasonr]

"So, you milk your own cow, separate the cream, and churn your own butter? If not, why should it be any different with methyl celullose?"

Yes, at a certain point, we have to rely on others to produce/process our ingredients. Obviously I'm not out churning my own butter or slaughtering my own cattle (although the geese that frequent my campus look mighty tasty, and if I could just catch one... never mind :twisted: ) but if you can't tell the difference between a basic store-bought ingredient like milk, and some random lab-made chemical additive with fifty syllables on the back of a twinky wrapper, then you're really being obtuse.

"3. Most people NEVER give it any serious thought. Do they think that the professionals who develop the formulations listed on almost every processed food that they eat are fools or idiots?"

Aruzinsky, obviously you have not thought this through clearly. No one is saying that these ingredients don't have their purpose. I'm just saying that most of them are probably preservatives or compounds more related to efficient mass production and storage than taste and quality. It's not that the professionals behind your average box of cookies or twinkies are fools, it's just that their priorities are substantially different from the home-baker's. Store-bought goods have to be made at the cheapest possible price at high volumes; it goes without saying that there will be additives which contribute little or nothing to overall quality, but have peripheral purposes, not relevant to home baking. Yes, if you go to fancy specialty stores, you can find quality pre-made goods, but for the most part, what you find on the grocery store shelf is filled with ingredients that have little or nothing to do with quality. I have alot of cookbooks, most meant for amateur home bakers, and some meant for professionals. I have watched cooking shows, read articles, subscribe to cooking magazines, and own an ingredient encyclopedia, and I have NEVER seen ingredients like what you see on the back of an average processed good from a grocery store in any of these. Let me ask you this: are professional chefs, who make their living out of cooking quality food for small numbers of people (relatively small compared to mass produced goods) so foolish and/or stupid that they don't know what ingredients do well in their dishes? And tell me, what pure ingredients are banned by the FDA, and why?

 

[aruzinsky]

"So, you milk your own cow, separate the cream, and churn your own butter? If not, why should it be any different with methyl celullose?"

Yes, at a certain point, we have to rely on others to produce/process our ingredients. Obviously I'm not out churning my own butter or slaughtering my own cattle (although the geese that frequent my campus look mighty tasty, and if I could just catch one... never mind :twisted: ) but if you can't tell the difference between a basic store-bought ingredient like milk, and some random lab-made chemical additive with fifty syllables on the back of a twinky wrapper, then you're really being obtuse.

"3. Most people NEVER give it any serious thought. Do they think that the professionals who develop the formulations listed on almost every processed food that they eat are fools or idiots?"

Aruzinsky, obviously you have not thought this through clearly. No one is saying that these ingredients don't have their purpose. I'm just saying that most of them are probably preservatives or compounds more related to efficient mass production and storage than taste and quality. It's not that the professionals behind your average box of cookies or twinkies are fools, it's just that their priorities are substantially different from the home-baker's. Store-bought goods have to be made at the cheapest possible price at high volumes; it goes without saying that there will be additives which contribute little or nothing to overall quality, but have peripheral purposes, not relevant to home baking. Yes, if you go to fancy specialty stores, you can find quality pre-made goods, but for the most part, what you find on the grocery store shelf is filled with ingredients that have little or nothing to do with quality. I have alot of cookbooks, most meant for amateur home bakers, and some meant for professionals. I have watched cooking shows, read articles, subscribe to cooking magazines, and own an ingredient encyclopedia, and I have NEVER seen ingredients like what you see on the back of an average processed good from a grocery store in any of these. Let me ask you this: are professional chefs, who make their living out of cooking quality food for small numbers of people (relatively small compared to mass produced goods) so foolish and/or stupid that they don't know what ingredients do well in their dishes? And tell me, what pure ingredients are banned by the FDA, and why?

I am not a lawyer and do not know the details of the FDA laws, but it is my understanding that they set concentration limits on some food ingredients that are sold for consumer use in food. For example, I can buy wintergreen or sweet birch oil which are 98% methyl salicylate, but not without a warning that it is not for internal use. Wintergreen life savers and rootbeer contain exactly this. Another example is heliotropin which I can't buy at all, but for a different reason. It is controlled because it can be used to make amphetamines. In both cases, the consumer can buy these at great dilutions in the form of "flavor extracts." A cook would have better control over flavor, if given access to the individual chemical components in artificial flavoring "extracts" presently sold to the consumer. And, yes, there is a flavor advantage to some artificial flavors over natural flavors. I prefer certain artificial rum flavorings over real rum in eggnog (better yet, both). I prefer certain artificial pistachio flavorings, which tastes nothing like real pistachio, in ice cream. My favorite rootbeer (Fanta no longer available) was 100% artificially flavored.

Also, let me remind you that when an ingredient is adulterated or diluted, the cost of packaging, shipping and storage increases. These costs get passed on to the consumer. Sometimes adulteration is done voluntarily by the manufacturer without FDA interference. For example, I can't buy pure sucralose (Splenda).

One more thing. Pure ingredients are intrinsically standardized while diluted ingredients are not. The concentration of diluted ingredients varies from manufacturer to manufacturer which can lead to all sorts of problems.
For example, someone wanted to know how much food coloring to add to cake. Without being familiar with the specific brand, I do not know. Had the food dye been in pure form and the generic name given, then it would be possible to give advice without knowing the specific brand.

 

[Brooksy]

Wow,

All I am trying to do is get a cake out of the oven.

Since the cake mix (I promise - never again), I have tried the same homemade recipe and combining different ways, basically:

1.5 cups AP flour
1 cup Sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp b soda
150 mls milk
2 eggs (used 60gm eggs)
0.5 tsp vanilla

* I was given the option of 1 egg & 200mls milk or as shown above.

Bake 180 deg C (about 350 - 360 F)


Combining.
Lazy Cake - everything in the bowl and mix low speed until moist then 75% for 3 minutes & transfer to baking tin.

Fold in flour - mix all ingredients except flour. When fully incorporated, fold in flour until fully combined then Xfer to tin.

I tried the beaten egg whites today but busted a yoke into the whites so today's trial ended up a lazy cake.

Many small cafes and snack shops bake their own cakes from scratch not a premix and produce beautiful results - which is what I would like to do.

The majority of readers of this forum can can produce beaut results from scratch, I cannot - yet.

Many additives are added as fungal retardants and freshness agents. If you do things right then there is no need for either. Even my flops are gone within hours (eaten or horse feed ).

And what a way to show off. Front up to a party, BBQ or whatever, things are running smoothly 'nibblies' are running short because somebody spiked the salad dressing with 'pot', guests get the munchies and eat the hosts out of house & home. "No worries', says the show off,"Where's yer flour, show me the kitchen, here comes a coupla cakes & a coupla loaves."


My cooking skills are purely survival only & I want to learn more. And ain't I learning.

I live in a dairy area, use free range (backyard) eggs, what more can I say. Haven't purposely churned our own butter up here yet, but used to do it often back on the farm as a kid. The churn was a homemade hand job made from the crank of an old Fordson tractor, & as far as I know it is still working today, still on the same tree stump. Memories are scary things .

This is too long. CU Soon.

Brooksy

 

[Rom]

mmm cadbury mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm