CAKES MAKING Cakes are excellent served with tea. They can also be served as a puddings / desserts. Cakes can contain fresh fruits, dried fruits and assorted nuts. Fancy cakes are made with glace icing, butter cream, or crumble topping. Traditionally, cakes served with tea are not too sweet. Dessert cakes are beautifully decorated cakes with mouth watering fruits, whipped cream and ice creams. Appearance: top crust slightly rounded pale golden brown. Texture: uniform small gas holes, thin cell walls, tender crumb and should melt in the mouth. No resistance to bite. Taste: should feel velvety in the mouth, crumb slightly moist, mild sweet buttery flavor. CAKES Sponge Cakes Sponge cake 9basic recipe) Chocolate sponge Swiss roll Chocolates Swiss roll Lemon curd filling Jam filling Pineapple pastry Chocolate pastry Assorted pastry Orange gateau Black forest gateau Plain cream cake Chocolate cake Orange / Lemon cake Marbled cake
Dundee cake Victorian sandwich cake Pineapple upside down pudding/ cake Eggless cake Chocolate eggless cake Orange eggless cake Cake Icings Glace icing Chocolate glace icing Butter icing Chocolate butter icing Royal icing Cakes may be served as snacks, or as desserts. Tea/ coffee cakes, butter cakes, fruit cakes, cup cakes, upside down cakes, pastries and gateaux are a few examples of cakes. All cakes, however, fall into tow basic categories: cream / butter cakes and sponge cakes. A standard recipe for a cream cake has equal amounts 9i.e. by weight) of flour, sugar, butter and egg. The presence of butter makes the cake heavy and therefore it needs chemical leaveners for a light porous texture. They are made by creaming butter and sugar first and then folding in the other ingredients. A standard recipe for sponge cake uses 1 egg for 25 g each of flour and sugar. It is made by beating eggs and sugar first and then folding in the other ingredients. The higher proportion of eggs used in the cake provides sufficient air for leavening. Sponge cakes typically do not contain butter and baking powder. They are very dry and therefore, are eaten with icing containing cream, butter cream, custard sauce etc. various cream cakes may be made by adding flavourings such as chocolate, cocoa, coffee, spices and dry fruits to the batter. Plain cream cakes may be served with a soft custard or a sweet sauce, such as chocolate, coca, coffee, spices and dry fruits to the batter. Plain cream cakes may be served with a soft custard or a sweet sauce, such as chocolate, vanilla, or fruit. Cream cakes include plain, Dundee, chocolate, spice, ginger bread, and many others, sponge cakes are yellow sponge cakes (made with whole eggs) and angel food or white sponge cakes (made with egg whites).
Sponge cakes may be served as an accompaniment to fruits or used as a basis for desserts. They may be used as a base for gateaux, pastries, and coffee cakes. A slice of sponge cake may be covered with fruit and whipped cream or it may be served with chocolate, lemon, butterscotch or other sauces. Two thin slices of sponge cake may be filled with ice cream, whipped cream and nuts, or whipped cream and fruit and served as a sweet sandwich. Lemon or orange sponge may be made by using the finely grated rind of lemon or orange in place of vanilla essence. With a plain Swiss roll, try sweetened cream and crushed pineapple or raspberry jam and whipped cream, or a flavoured ice cream. For decorating cakes, use glace fruit, ginger, nuts, almonds flaked and browned, or pistachio nuts sliced or chopped, tinted coconut, fruits dipped in caramel, crystallized rose leaves, piped designs in royal icing or chocolate curls (for chocolate curls, shave off pieces of chocolate using a potato peeler). Variations in glace icing may be obtained by mixing icing sugar with orange juice, lemon juice, or strong coffee instead of water. NUTRITIVE VALUE The nutritive value of cakes depends on their particular ingredients, though generally the calorie content is quite high. A piece of plain sponge cake provides about 140 Kcals while two swiss rolls with a filling of jam give 240 Kcals. Cream cakes such as Victorian sandwich and chocolate cake provide approximately 230 Kcals per piece. CAKE INGREDIENTS INCLUDE FLOUR Flour provides the structure and framework of the cake. Plain refined wheat flour (maida) or self raising flour may be used for cakes. Wheat flour contains complex proteins and when combined with water produces gluten, a substance that helps to make the dough rise and firm. This is because of the elastic net work formed by the gluten soft flour containing 8-10% gluten is good for cakes, while hard wheat containing 11-13%. Gluten is good for bread. Self raising flour is a fairly soft flour containing 1 t of baking powder, well sifted and blended with 1 C (120 g) flour. It is convenient to use and gives good results.
LIQUID Liquid moistens the proteins, produces gluten and starch. Sugar, salt, and chemical leaveners are also dissolved by liquid. The liquid is usually milk, although water, fruit juice, sour milk, or butter milk, may be used in some recipes. On baking, the liquid gets trapped in the network of gluten and turns into steam thus causing the dough to expand the leavening. SHORTENING It tenderizes (shortens) the gluten and starch particles, rendering the crumb tender. It also entraps air during the creaming process, thereby contributing to the batter. Hydrogenated fats produce a cake with a fine grained texture and a good volume. Butter in cakes could be replaced by hydrogenated fat equal to 80 percent of the weight of butter. Margarine or oil may also be used. The softness of the cake depends on the quantity of shortening used and on how well it is blended into the flour. SUGAR Sugar contributes to tenderness and flavor of cake. Castor sugar is best for cakes made by the creaming method since this sugar creams easily. Brown sugar, syrup, honey and treacle may be used to give colour, flavor and a moist texture. EGGS They help from the framework of the cake, add colour and flavor, and act as a leavening agent. LEAVENERS These include air (beaten into eggs and incorporated during creaming of fat and sugar), steam 9formed from liquid ingredients), and chemical leaveners. Chemical leaveners used in cakes are baking powder; cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda, buttermilk and sour milk with bicarbonate of soda, buttermilk and sour milk with bicarbonate of soda; or vinegar or lemon juice with bicarbonate of soda. Proportion of baking powder to flour: 1 level t baking powder to every 120 g (standard cup0 flour.
FLAVORINGS Salt, spices, nuts, fruits (dried and fresh) and chocolate give flavor to cake. Spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves provide interesting flavours. CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD CAKES Cream cakes should have a good volume and should be slightly rounded not peaked. They should have a delicate, sweet flavor and a soft velvety crumb, the air cells should be thin walled, small, and evenly spaced. Sponge cakes should be very light, tender, even and fine in texture and free from a sugary crust. HINTS FOR BAKING For even distribution of fruit, cut into small pieces. To avoid sinking of the dried cut fruit, dredge with a little flour before adding to the cake mixture. Have all ingredients at room temperature for best results Measures / weigh the ingredients accurately. Sift dry ingredients well, so that the mixture is aerated. Use a cake tin of the correct size. Prepare the cake tin before beginning to mix the cake better. Grease the tin lightly and dust it with flour, tapping out any surplus. If the cake requires long baking, grease the tin and then line it with butter paper or greased brown paper. For sponge cakes, do not line the tins with paper or else the cake will have a moist, crustless appearance. Do not beat the batter after the flour has been added or the finished cake will turn out to be heavy. If flavouring extracts are used, add them to the fat because fat absorbs flavor readily. Fill the cake tin only half to two thirds full of batter. To get a cake with a level top, scoop out a little batter from the centre of the tin to the sides to form a small depression before putting it into the oven. Place tin in the centre of the oven, so that hot air can circulated around it. A cake is baked when it is
- Well risen and has a good colour, and feels firm and springy when pressed with the finger tips. - A toothpick/ cake tester remains clean after being inserted into the cake. - In the case of a fruit cake, when no sizzling sound is heard when held fairly close to the ear. When cakes are removed from the oven, wait for 10-15 minutes before removing them from the tin. If the cake is to be iced or frosted wait until it has cooled to room temperature before decorating. For icings, use dry and scrupulously clean utensils, always sieve icing sugar, flavor delicately and avoid strong colourings. Storing the cake: Place the cooled cake in a large, plastic film and then wrap in an aluminium foil. Place it in an air tight container. What Went Wrong? A heavy cake : To little baking powder; too much flour; mixture not creamed enough; flour mixed in too vigorously; oven too slow. A dry cake : Too much baking powder or flour; not enough fat or liquid; too long in the oven. A sunken cake : Too much liquid, baking powder, or sugar; too little flour; oven door slammed or cake moved during baking; taken our from oven too soon. A peaked cake : Insufficient fat or leavening; too much flour; oven temperature too high. A badly cracked top : Oven too hot; cake tin too small; too much flour; not enough liquid. Fruits sunk to the bottom Fruit not properly dried; cake mixture too thin; fruit added without flour.
LEAVENING AGENTS A leavening agent aerates the mixture and thereby lightens it. Leavening action may be produced by physical. chemical or biological means. The common leavening agents are air. steam and CO 2. AIR Air is incorporated into flour mixtures by: Beating eggs Folding and rolling doughs Creaming fat and sugar together Sifting dry ingredients Beating batters STEAM Steam is probably produced in all flour mixtures to a certain degree since all flour mixtures contain water and are usually heated to the vaporisation temperature of water. Although the steam produced during baking causes the mixture to expand, steam alone cannot leaven a mixture. Its action must be combined with that of air and / or CO 2. When steam alone is used as the leavening agent as in choux pasrry preparations, chapattis and puries, high temperatures must be achieved so that steam formation in the mixture can be qquickly attained. CARBON DIOXIDE The principal means of leavening flour mixture is by the formation of carbon dioxide generated by the action of chemical leaveners or produced from sugar by the action of yeast micro organisms. Chemical leaveners include baking powder, baking soda and ammonium carbonate.
BACKING SODA Backing soda is sodium bicarbonate and releases carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). Exact amounts of soda must be used, for, an excess of soda will result in a unpalatable product with yellow spots on the surface. BACKING POWDER It is the leavening agent produced by the mixing of an acid reacting material and sodium bicarbonate, with the addition of starch or flour. Starch acts as an inert substance to keep the acid material and soda separate and gives uniformity to the composition of baking powder and helps release the standard 14% volume of carbon dioxide gas. Baking powders are classified according to their action rates. Fast acting ones give off most their gas during the first few minutes of contact with liquid. When such powders are added to a mixture, the mixture must be handled quickly to avoid loss of carbon dioxide and volume. Slow acting powders give up very little of their gas volume at low temperatures; they require the heat of the oven to react completely. Double acting baking powders begin to act at low temperatures and give viscosity and smoothness to the batter, but react completely only when exposed to high temperatures. The correct amount of baking powder is desirable for any baked product. If too much is used, the cell walls of the flour mixture are stretched beyond their limit and they break and collapse. If too little is used, insufficient expansion occurs and a compact, dense product results. For cakes, 1 t baking powder per cup of flour is usually adequate. ENO FRUIT SALT It is a combination of 60% sodium bicarbonate and 40% citric acid. METHODS OF ADDING BAKING POWDER AND SODA Dry chemical leavening agents are usually sifted with the flour and are not allowed to become wet until the gas forming (leavening) reaction is required each. Baking powder and soda are sometimes substituted for each another. ½ t soda can be used for 2 t baking powder or 1 t eno salt.
YEAST Fermentation produces the leavening action of yeast, a microscopic unicellular plant. Yeast cells reproduce rapidly under suitable conditions of food, warmth and moisture. Yeast is available either compressed or dry. Dry yeast, which has better keeping quality than compressed yeast, must be dissolved in warm water containing a few grains of sugar before it can be used.