glennbech

Mission accomplished -) Little "Maia" (Friend's 3 months year old) Was baptised today. And I provided the chocolate cake for the party. First of all I'd like to thank All of you for helping me out. I had never baked a chocolate cake before I started (Hardly any cake), and certainly didn't know what a "Genoise" one was .-) I know a few of you have put down some real time answering my questions. I'd just like to make sure you all know how much I apericiate it .-) The thing I ended up making was ; Genoise Chocolate cake (http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateGenoise.html) Almond flavored syrup for moisture Almond extract, 100g sugar/100g water, boiled and cooled. . Applied to the sponge cake on each layer SweetSide's White Chocolate Espresso Filling (http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r1628.html) Substituting the instant coffee with real Espresso, and throwing some crushed almonds into the mix. Chiantiglace's Mirror Chocolate Glaze (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=73257&st=0&p=999482entry999482) Decoration/Presentation - White-heart cherry. In season in Norway now, and look so good. They have a very Shiny apearance. Something that went really well with the glaze. These berries also have a very deep red colour that looked good on the chocolate. - Lichi. I split them in two to showcase the black seed in the centre, that is also very dark and shiny. I also just love theese.... - I saw something real cool on a TV program last week, where the host put chocolate on a balloon, put it in the fridge and popped the ballon later to create a chocolate hemisphere. After some trial and error, I made it .-) The chocolate had a tendency to "Stick" to the balloon after I deflated it. I wanted to create a "bowl" where I could put some fruit, on top of the cake. I think It went real well, except that the weather was real hot and it ALMOST melted in the car on the way to the party. Always Some room for improvement ; - Presentaion.. The bottom part of my cake looks like a mess .-) - The pictures doesn't show this, but the glaze developed some pores. - A bit on the "heavy side" with espresso, almonds, white chocolate, dark chocolate and glaze .-) Maybe use something fresh and fruity instead of espresso/almond ?? - Workflow! You have no Idea what my kitchen looked like after this!! I also had to get up early todat to finish the cake, as Sweetside's White chocolate filling have to chill before whisking it. Bad planning. But, all in all I was very pleased with the result. So where my friends, I guess this is the most important thing .-) It was also great fun to post my progress here, and I got real hight feedback and Ideas from a lot of people! Here are some images of my cake. Here is a link to the imageGullet public album

So... If I make a ganache with for example equal parts of chocolate and cream, i can "puff it up" by whisking by hand or in my kenwood after it has chilled? That would be real sweet .-)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw...0506/taste.html In This recipe, the "sponge" is made in a rectangular pan, and 2 x circular 8" pieces are "cut out" after baking. This means that baking times are reduced. Howevver; This also means a lot of "waste" right ? I guess the reason is to keep the cake flat, and baking times short (to avoid brown colour maybe?). Can I split the batter in 2, and bake in two 8" pans? Baking the entire recipe in an 8" pan is difficult (I tried). After 30 minutes the crust is turning brownish, and the batter still isn't solid. Another question; If a recipe calls for 1 cup of vegetable oil, can I substitute that with 1 cup of melted butter?

That helped I believe .-)

My "Goals" for Cake Version 2.0 was ; - Make it "Straight"! cut the sponge to an even surface. - Make a proper filling with 3 parts chocolat to 1 part heavy cream - Make the sponge higher (Or scale recipe by 1.2) - Succeed with a gelatin glaze. - Experiment with some flavourings and decoration.. Here's the result: - I was happy with my sponge. I still used 4 eggs, but eXtra LArge ones. - The sponge was higher in the few places where I hadn't buttered the pan properly. I guess this is the proof of what people have been saying upthread. (It needs the pan to "cling" to) - I leveled the cake and added a thin layer of chocolate to bind the crumbs, and fill some holes. Felt like a construction worker .-) - I skipped the glaze, since I had some questions. Sweetside has been kind enough to PM me som clarifications, So I'll try again next time. - It's impossible to see, but I used an almond flavoried White chocolate ganache between layers. It's impossible to see, but the result were more moisture. And that's a good thing I guess. Some things I Myself think needs improvement ; - It may be a bit on the "heavy" side. There's almost 3-4 mm of frosting on the cake. Some may consider this a bit "over the top" .-) - I'll try not to butter/flour the pan, but put parchment paper in the bottom of it. - I need a ganache in the middle of the layers that visible .-) Comments and feedback is mostly welcome, please be hard on me, as I want to improve .-)

First of all; Thanks for taking the time :-) 1. No it actually inflated a bit in the centre of the cake. I was very happy with that. I'll definitly go for your idea and get myself one or two 8" pans. 5. Great suggestion. Added to my checklist for my next cake. 6. We're talking a glacage... I will do a few more practice runs on it. I rushed a bit when making and, and had to down-scale the recipe "on the fly" (bad planning!). If I can't perfect in in a couple of more tries, I'll just make 2 different ganaches, one for filling and one for frosting. I DO want a dark mirror finish, So I'll put some effort into that part of the cake. This IS my first cake ever. I really don't want to count the one that ended up on my floor/radiator/partly into the oven .-)

I may be in over my head here. But in Sourdough baking it "might" make some sense to add malt extract (if it contains maltosis, something that I guess it does). I think Dan Lepard has malt extract in some of his naturally leavned bread in "the handmade loaf". The lactobacilli utilizes the maltosis, while the yeast utilizes the other sugars present in the flour. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_sanfranciscensis)

Okay.... This went "not so good" :-) Well. Im glad I can repeat the process a few times until Sunday! I went for this recipe for my genoise chocolate cake. I was "fairly" happy with my result. ( link: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateGenoise.html ) I did everything according to recipe and the eggs + sugar puffed up real good, and about tripled in volume. I lost some volume while turning in the flour/cocoa powder/melted butter. But I guess this is Normal. When It came to filling and glazing... I can only report of chaos and error :-) But I guess the good thing about chocolate mistakes is that you can still eat them .-) I've summarized my questions and bad experiences below. If anyone would be kind enough to comment on any of them, I'll be very happy ! :-) I do realize that these questions are really basic, so... No hard feelings if some of them go unanswered. I guess this will be the thread for people who help a total beginer bake a great cake for "Maia" on her baptism party on Sunday 11. July .-) The clock is ticking! 1) Im not sure about the "sponge". It ended up at about 2-3 cm (1-1.5 inches) in a 9" pan. How does this compare to your experiences for a cake with 4 large eggs, 125g sugar, 40g butter and 65 grams flour? I tried (as hard as I could) not to lose volume when whisking in flour and coca powder. 3) the Shape ended up a bit "uneven" on the top. That really made the top of the cake look "uneven". I guess that's why it's common to "level it" ? .-) Darn, should have kept that in mind. How about just re-arringing the two slices, using the bottom half on top? It had a pretty even cut. Great Idea? Not so good? If I do that, I don't have to throw anything away. 2) Gelatin. My Glaze recipe called for 28g gelatin. In Norway, gelatin usually comes in the form of "sheets" that you put in water for about 10 minutes before dissolving in water. The glaze recipe contained water, but I also had to dissolve the gelatin in water. I suddenly found my self with two options; Use portions of the glaze water recipe for melting the gelatin, or adding some extra. I added some etxtra (doh!) and my glaze became very fluid.... 3) Straining. Some ganache recipes and glace recipies tells me to "Strain" the glaze... I mean, If I put that thick mass through a regular strainer, nothing will get through? For my "Straining" is running for example a chicken stock through the same tool I use for sifting flour. I guess "strain" has a different meaning/tool in baking? I really should try to get a cullinary dictionary .-) 4) When a recipe says 28g Gelatin, is that before of after soaking ? My 17g gelatin sheets had absorbed about 83g of water, totalling about 100g. I think I made a bad mistake when I threw a lot of it away ! Man..... this didn't go to well.... 5) I got some "spots" on my cake. That is either A) Gelatine clumps.. Yuck! B) White chocolate that I put in. C) Over-heated chocolate --> cocoa butter... Any Ideas ? I think I will stick with the genoise sponge. It was fun and easy to bake. I have a Kenwood Major Kitchen machine. It was fun to finally use it for some extensive mixing. The only thing I am a bit worried about is the "height". 2-3 cm is a bit difficult to cut horizontaly with precission. I'm also thinking of using a white chocolate ganache filling. Just to break up the colours a bit. The cake might end up a bit on the "heavy" side I guess. But, I'm aiming for something people will take a thin slice of with their coffee. Actions points for next cake ; - Make it "Straight"! cut the sponge to an even surface. - Make a proper filling with 3 parts chocolat to 1 part heavy cream - Make the sponge higher (Or scale recipe by 1.2) - Succeed with a gelatin glaze. Some photo's of today's efforts :-) Sponge. Please comment on height. Finished result Not something I'd serve. But I think I'll still eat it .-)

Can you explain why the syrup? Moisture? Taste? you mean basicly taking the crust of the cake right?

Hi all, got visitors last night. Couldn't do a remake of the cake, did some BBQ instead... Desiderio; Eyes of the hawk... Yes... I was going to put the cake into the bottom rack of my oven. I even have my baking stone in there. I guess I was in for a disaster one way or anohter .-) The cord is from an oven thermometer, My oven is very inaccurate and report 200c maybe 15 minutes before it acutally reaches that tempereature. I use it to verify that the temp is what it should be .-) This is the recipe that went all over the floor (and my radiator, and partly into my hot oven and stuck to everything) ; http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r431.html Thanks for all the support. I'll bake my first atempt tonight. That'll be in around 10-12 hours -) I also think I changed my mind, and are going for a genoise cake as suggested upthread. I was thinking something like this ; http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateGenoise.html

First atempt ; Have to say Im a bit demotivated .-) But! I will prevail. Maybe try again later tonight, need to lick my woulds first.

Kerry; You're right. They used ~ 95% Tallow and 5% Cottonseed oil. Im sure they were great fries. I know I can use duck fat for as long as many times I like, if it never goes over 160 degrees c, does the same go for tallow?

I bought a tenderloin cut at my butcher today that was boneless but contained a lot of fat. After trimming, I rendered the fat like I use to do with duck fat. I did this by putting the the suet in a large pan, covered it and put it in the oven at 120-130 c for an hour or two. I then strained the fat. Im not sure if this is the right process for beef fat. I read up on the subject AFTER doing it (typical!), and most pages I found suggesting boiling the fat with water and salt... Now... Im not quite sure what I need this fat for. I guess it was the "never waste anything", instinct that kicked in. I know I can use this fat for soap, birdfood and for cadndles... But, How about cooking ? Maybe a beef confit ? Any Ideas ? Recipies ? It looks and smells awsome .-)

Saara, thank you !!! :-) You have no idea how long I've been searching for such a list .-)

That's the kind of look Im after .-) Well... I'd of course be happy with something much much less professional looking than Michael's Demo .-) Would you mind posting , or PM me the Mirror Recipe? Trade secret ? As for "baking soda", I just didn't recognize the name, the chemical name made sense, and Im sure I can get it .-)

I already have some problems Im afraid :-) 1) Why baking soda AND baking powder ? Im not sure if I can get my hands on both here in Norway. Are both common in other countries ? Baking poweder is common supermarket stuff. Baking Soda is not. 2) Buttermilk. Is this a rare ingredient? Im not sure I can get it easily. What does it do, and can it be substituted ? Answers welcome

So the mirror like frosting is "ganache". Thanks for the info, I'll dig up some recipies. And try it out. Is the technique just to bake a cake, split it in two horizontaly, put some good tasting thing in between, and pour the ganache over until it covers the cake ?

Short update; I replicated my experiment, using 18g of starter to 150g flour/150g water. Again, after 10 hours, it "puffed up" to a second peak. The preferment has a very strong rising capability. The smell of the dough during bulk was a bit "yeasty", and a bit different from my other bread. This is a classic White leaven bread recipe, with some durum wheat and wholemeal rye added for taste. I gave it 4 hours worth of bulk fermentation with regular kneadings, retardation in the fridge. I took the dough out of the fridge, shaped and gave it 2-3 hous of proofing in a basket, I was concerned about over-proofing since it was growing fast, that's why I didn't go all the 4,5 hours with proofing. I'll post crumb pictures as soon as I "open it up" .-) Me and my wife just finished all of the little loaf for dinner .-) Amazing bread!

Some friends of mine are of the conception that I know my way around a kitchen (Probably because I talk of my sourdough baking all the time *S*). They have asked me do to a chocolate cake for their child's baptism party. I have about one week to experiment, but I don't mind doing the cake(s) 2-3 times as "practice runs". I've read through a lot of the material in the eGullet "let's make the perfect chocolate cake" thread , and are starting to get an Idea of what's going on when baking such a thing... (Plastic wrapping, freezing, low temperatures, tooth picks and all that stuff.) In my head, I have this Idea of a very dark chocolate cake with a dark "mirror" frosting If you know what I mean. I've seen some photos on this forum I believe, but I was not able to recall where. That's what I really want to do. I want loads of High quality unhealthy delicious chocolate, I'll probably gain a few pounds just tasting and baking, but who cares .-) I also don't mind jumping in to learn to swim, so ideas on fancy toppings and presentation ideas are also welcome .-) So! If anyone can point me in the right direction for a recipe for the cake, maybe a "Ganache" and a black mirror frosting... I'd be very happy. I will of course post my progress in this thread. The b-party is 11. June, So I better start practicing some techniques .-) Maybe this can be one of thos experiments on how a totallty beginner cake-baker can get help from experienced ones to create a masterpiece in only one week !? Only time will show I guess

I've done a little experiments on sourdough sponge timing. I don't want to recite everthing here, but I was kind of hoping we could have a discussion on it anyway.. I've blogged it at http://www.glennbech.com/2006/06/timing-so...ugh-sponge.html Here is the The executive summary, since you're all important people and have limited time :-) I made two starters, A&B, where both contains water at 23c and 150g flour/150g water. A Contains 18g inactive sourdough starter from the fridge, B contains 36g. The starters were put under my proofing lamp for a constant 28c temperature. I have photos for all 12 samples in my blog entry along with a table showing elapsed time and volume. What I wanted to find out was two things ; 1) What are the "lifecycle" of the sponge. How much time goes by before "something starts to happen". When does it peak ? Etc. The reason why I want to find this out is that I usually have a sponge going when I sleep, or I am at work. I can't watch it all the time (without a webcam that is, great idea!) :-) 2) How does the amount of inactive starter included into you sponge affect it's speed. http://www.glennbech.com/uploaded_images/graph.gif I some questions regarding my little experiment 1) When to bake. I assume the peaks are good alternatives ? What are the effects of baking at the different stages? I know that baking with an inactive sponge is disasterous .-) Been there done that 2) Both my starters first increases in size, stops up, falls down a bit, and then "Puffs up" with lits of foam. Can anyone explain to me the chemistry/biology of this? Is this the east taking over ? 3) Are my findings representable for other starters than mine ?

Thank you :-) I've got so much to learn, but a lifetime to practice :-) Isn't that great ?! What I am very happy with, is that I now have a process that I know will produce decent bread! (And that fits my schedule) If my starter puffs up to double size overnight, I know that everything will be allright. And that is a big relief.

By the way; I really think that Baking parchment (paper) between the dough and baking stone should be avoided. The dough is pretty humid (At least for the first minutes) and water is an excellent heat conductor. Im no expert, but If oven spring depends on steam to fill gluten pockets during the first 5-10 minutes, while the crust "sets", I see a very good reason NOT to put anything insulating between the hot source and the wet dough :-) Thoughts ?

The fact that one loaf was heavier than the other, and that I baked one for 40 minutes and the other for 50, makes me a bit unsure if the experiment is "valid" :-) I think I have to retry, and keep all parameters equal .-) Next time, I'll also try to bake the one right out from the fridge last. The oven, with my stone was heated for 60 minutes before baking, but you never know what can have an effect. I proofed the loaves 1 hour before they went into the fridge, meaning ; Loaf 1 got 4 hours bulk (with flips and stretches along the way) + 1 hour in my basket, room temp. +overnight in fridge. Loaf 2 got 4 hours bulk (with flips and stretches along the way) + 1 hour in my basket , room temp. +overnight in fridge + 2 hours table top The recipe isn't big enough for two loaves (to my preference), So I think I'll also try to increase the total weight by 40% So that I get 700g loaves. (Pre baked) Happy baking :-)

Here is the result of my "white leaven" bread with an overnight retardation experiment ; I must say that this is by far my most successfull bread .-) I guess I have to thank Dan for that, Thank you Dan :-) If you look closely at the image in the upper right corner, at the loaves by my basket; you see the different crumb textures. The two loaves on the right with an open and airy texture is the ones that proofed for 2 more ours after I took them out. The cut pieces in the bottom right corner is the one I baked right out of the fridge. However, other factors may have come into play. For example the fact that I baked the last loaf for 50 minutes, and the other one for 40. It's also a smaller loaf by weight (Im horrible at splitting doughs in two equal parts!), that means more kneading power per gram, and also more spring in the oven (I believe) as the weight is less. Thr process I've been using up til now, where 1/3 of the flour in the leaven, and a temperature of 30 degrees c during bulk/proof gives results faster (Almost only half the time of yeast!) However, the taste and texture of my last result has convinced me to experiment more in the "slow" direction .-) Here is some pictures from the process I mean... Look at this texture! :-) (Colours are off, I had lighting problems .-) ... And one of the first loaf

Well. I proofed it 1 hor before putting it in the fridge (I had to go to bed!), overnight in the fridge should be comparable to about 2 hours proofing. The recipe suggests 4-4,5 hours proofing. That means that I'm one hour short. I guess that 2 hours out of the fridge will compensate for the last hour. (The loaf will need to get back to room temperature). But! As you suggest Vanessa, I'll bake one right out the fridge, and proof the other one 2 hours. We'll see the results tonight, about 12 hours from now .-)