LittleIsland

Ok by this you mean convection with bottom heat correct? And PamR, by "regular" you mean traditional top and bottom heat without convection? Just checking...

Thanks Squirrelly Cakes. For the most part I will probably be wanting to either bake the full batch of batter in the 3" high pan, or, where I'm doing layers (if I don't want to torte or if I just want to make 2 separate cakes) to use the same amount of batter in the 3" pan as would have gone into the 2" pan. It sounds from your experience that I should (most times) be able to use the 3" pan for 2" pan batter (or for the sake of argument, even less) with no problem of the higher sides shielding the cake from cooking. I assume RLB might have been referring more to the top of the cake browning. In other words for the 8" pans, I could buy one 2" and one 3" and just use those for baking 2 layers where necessary? Is there an instance where you'd say: ok, the 3" pan is definitely too high for this amount of batter, so it will throw off your results? Can I also assume that when using convection mode, this should not be a problem anyway?

I'm sorry if this question might have been asked before, but I've just finished reading through 7-8 pages of search results and have not found an answer. My new oven is a Brandt multi-function, so I can bake on full convection, or fan with bottom heat, or traditional top and bottom heat with no fan. My question is, which mode for which instance? For multi-rack baking it's got to be full convection, correct? The other day I did fan with bottom heat for 4 pans over 2 racks and that was a disaster. When do you like convection and when do you like traditional, and when should I use fan with bottom heat (which is what the handbook recommends for cakes )

I'm reviving this thread because I was buying some new pans to bake a wedding cake and was recommended Magic Line by the store and took (all loose bottomed) a 6x3, 12x3 and 2 9x2's because as the most commonly-used pan size in recipes (as an earlier poster mentioned) I just thought it would come in more useful than a 9x3. I baked RLB's All -Occasion Downy Yellow Butter cake in the 9x2's today and I can officially say I'm in LOVE with these pans... no wrapping needed, the cakes came out wonderfully level. On researching more about these pans, I happened across this thread and am interested in the comments about 3" vs 2". I once asked RLB about baking the above cake in a single higher pan vs the 2 lower pans and she recommended against it because it would affect the texture of the cake. The higher pan would require more leavener to help it rise in the higher pan. The other thing she says in her Cake Bible is that if the pan is too high for the batter, the sides of the pan may shield the batter from cooking properly. I don't know if anyone has found this to be the case. It would be interesting to know. Asking cos I'm thinking of getting an 8" and possibly 7" pan... and need to decide between 2 2" high pans in each instance, or one 3" high.

Good, that saves me forking out the extra for Ghirardelli since I totally trust your opinion Patrick! I have not bought regular Hershey's as it's not dutched. Can't say I'm an Oreo cookie fan either.

Yes I read your findings in the other thread about cocoa because I was trying to find out if it would be worth my while trying black cocoa but in the end I decided not to bother getting it shipped out - at least for now - since there doesn't seem to be a definitively huge plus for it. Happy with VH for now. I live in Singapore and in the supermarkets we have Hershey's Cocoa but not Special Dark. We also have Ghirardelli but I haven't seen any feedback that puts it above VH either. I guess if I tried harder I might be able to get Valrhona from some of the commercial suppliers but from what you say it doesn't sound like it's worth it...

Don't know about Vahlrona (sp?) as we don't have it here, but I guess any Dutch-processed should do. Good luck... it's a fantastic cake, I love it! The other day I made this using the same recipe and it was fantastic! The only problem I had was cooling it successfully in a 10-inch pan as I've always used an angel food tube pan. So I have to work on that... maybe use a flower nail or something, and a higher pan so that the sides can support the inversion.

I use Van Houeten cocoa which is Dutch processed and with the Spago recipe which calls for 3/4 cup (about 80g), it makes a very dark and chocolate-y chiffon cake. I was researching black cocoa and read somewhere that although it does provide a lovely rich dark colour, it doesn't necessarily taste better or more intense. Would be interesting to compare it in the same recipe except I'd have to buy it online and get it shipped here (v.expensive!) Don't overbeat the batter of the chiffon cake (before adding the whites) I did this a couple of times and the cake fell out of the pan after inverting and was ruined. Don't overbeat the whites either as they will become lumpy and difficult to fold into the batter and you'll get lots of unmixed white bits in your cake. Of course underbeating them is not good either. I beat the batter in my Kenwood Chef for about 2 minutes, that's it. Egg whites are beaten till firm but not until they start breaking down into lumps. I use a large slotted skimmer to fold my egg whites into the batter. If you fold with a firm hand and thoroughly around the sides and down to the bottom of the bowl with each fold, it shouldn't take more than, say, a minute to finish folding all the egg whites into the batter (I guess it might take less time for more experienced bakers). This is made easier by first folding about a 1/4 of the beaten whites into the batter and then the rest. The cake rises about 25% more than the volume of the batter and shrinks by about 5% upon removal from the oven. My crude estimates only, however

Patrick, you always have such artful lighting effects in your photographs. They are gorgeous (well, of course your desserts are gorgeous to start with) - do you use any special lighting or do they just turn out that way?

Hmm crystallised ginger... good idea. Might try something like that on my next attempt, but I think WITHOUT the walnuts otherwise it's just gonna become something else altogether

Cakewalk, I tried baking the Fresh Ginger muffins today, with about 1/3 cup of freshly ground ginger. Fresh out of the oven, I didn't find the ginger flavour to be as strong as I expected, but anyway the muffin tasted good. However, a half hour later, my throat is still a little warm from the "ginger glow" that it's left behind Anyway I would like to put a crunchy topping onto this - what would you suggest... a streusel-type topping with some fresh ground ginger and spices added, or maybe just ground ginger mixed with coarse demerera sugar?

BTW May, since I noted you had a disaster the first time, did you try the Spago Chocolate Chiffon again, using my tweaked recipe? I finally achieved the texture I wanted - with 7/8 cup water and baking at no more than 40 mins. YUMMY. Working on the frosting now First 2 times did not yield the results I wanted. I can't bake again until I replace my oven which has decided to retire... so I'm suffering a bit of withdrawal!

I don't know if the cream may have been off. But I put it in the bowl of my mixer and a few seconds after the beaters started, it started to look really strange - curdled - and then just separated into the solids and liquids of butter and I guess buttermilk. OK but I did add the icing/powdered sugar to the cream before whipping. Did that make the difference? When I subsequently used whipping cream and added the icing sugar before whipping, there was no problem.

Well, it's probably the right place to admit I didn't know 45% cream can't be whipped. Although of course if it's double cream I know it can't be whipped. So, more strange me Today my 45% cream became butter when I whipped it.

You're right of course ladies. Thinking back, I'm quite sure I did overbeat the batter. I was very careful not to do so the last couple of times and had no problems. So I'm really pleased to report that increasing the water to 3/4 cup and decreasing baking time to 40 minutes has really helped improve the moistness of the cake, and also get rid of much of the dry sides - although not completely and I suppose it's going to be difficult to achieve that. That would not be a problem if I'm frosting the cake, but if having it plain from the angel food pan then I need to keep working on the sides. Today I added 1 1/2 tsp of coffee to the water but it didn't make an appreciable difference to the flavour - at least not to my tastebuds.

Was using castor. But I thought they were the same thing. Overbeaten eggs? Can you imagine, then, if I'd really beaten them for 25 minutes... Might try the Victoria Sponge recommended by Shaloop... what do you use as the equivalent of Gas Mark 5?

I think I used the required amount of ingredients, using RLB's weight conversions. I even weighed the egg yolks and egg whites separately before putting them back together to whip. That's because our eggs have smaller yolks and a larger volume of whites than in the US. MH's book does not contain weight references. I had a thermometer in the oven the whole time and it was at 350 deg as instructed. I used Gold Medal unbleached AP flour - one of the few American brand flours available here - as the recipe calls for "flour" with no other descriptives. MH's foreword specifies we can use bleached or unbleached the same way. Possibly I should have used 140g of flour which is the measure RLB gives for dip and sweep rather than 121g for spooned in. I used the latter because MH's foreword explains how to measure flour into a cup by spooning in. So, I guess the next time I might try more flour. (But on the second day the cake was a little dry) So it looks like another possible cause of the problem is the eggs - either overbeating or underbeating, now if only I could figure out which! Which is why I wanted to know if eggs can be overbeaten, which from Chefpeon's input, could be true. The mixture was ivory coloured and fell in a thick slow ribbon after less than 10 mins on high on my Kenwood Chef, and I didn't see how it could be beaten for 25 mins... but again perhaps next time I should follow instructions to a T and see what happens. I stopped baking it at 40 mins (instead of 50-55 as specified) as it was very brown and sprang back when touched, passed the stick test, and when I took it out it was obviously cooked. Chefpeon... it sank halfway through baking, not upon emerging from the oven. It's really interesting to see everyone's input and theories, though... sorry this is having us stumped! Might have to try again... third time lucky maybe? Anyway does anyone else have another recipe for a Light Pound Cake... i.e. tastes rich like a butter cake but has a fluffier and light-ish texture - not to the extent of Chiffon however ? I have been making RLB's All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake and love it for the flavour, just looking for a little lighter texture (although it's actually already quite good).

Oops sorry, actually I used 121g flour, from RLB's conversion charts - for flour spooned into the cup rather than dipped and swept. Same with the weight for the other stuff - I used the measures from RLB's Cake Bible. The recipe calls for a fancy 10-inch tube pan, I used a 9-inch angel food pan, it did not rise above the top of the pan at all. It rose to about 1/4-inch from the top, stayed that way for about 15 minutes then deflated.

Oh yes, I have to add the recipe states to beat the eggs for about 25 minutes but I did probably about 10 minutes max, if that. I don't know if that was the cause of the problem. Now that the cake has cooled I've tried it again and the bottom half is no longer as light and fluffy as when it just emerged from the oven, though the top half still is. It's definitely a bit too crusty though.

Maida Heatter fans... help please! I've tried her Light Pound Cake twice, and need help getting it right. Here is the recipe: Maida Heatter's Light Pound Cake - described as “about halfway between a sponge cake and a pound cake”, with a texture that is “light and airy and moist”. 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter (I used 113g) 1 cup unsifted unbleached flour (I used 140g) 1 1/4 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt 6 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup granulated sugar (I used 200g) Melt butter and allow to cool. Sift together all the dry ingredients except the sugar. Beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla on high speed until it is pale and falls in a slow ribbon. On low speed add the melted butter, beating only until just incorporated. Do the same with the dry ingredients, being careful not to overbeat. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 deg. for 50-55 minutes. Top of cake will sink slightly toward the end of baking and while cooling. Ok the first time I made this cake following the directions exactly, the batter deflated while mixing in the dry ingredients and the baked cake was, as expected, disastrous. And it tasted very eggy. Today I folded in the cooled melted butter and the dry ingredients by hand as quickly as possible, and for the first 20 minutes or so of baking, had a gorgeously risen cake which had me very hopeful. Unfortunately, prematurely so. After 20 minutes the cake sank and stayed that way till the end. Here is the finished crater-cake: The cake itself was actually quite nice and moist and relatively airy for something that sank that badly. It tastes pretty good - rich, buttery, and light. I like the texture. But I'm sure it's not supposed to look like that! (Despite Ms Heatter's warning that the cake would sink "slightly") And it's definitely not presentable. Here's a close-up of a slice: It's a bit crusty. I am not sure if it's supposed to be that way. Can anyone help with opinions on what went wrong and how to fix it? Can eggs be overbeaten? I beat the eggs till they were just about ivory coloured. Thanks!

Another question: Pichet Ong's recipe calls for AP flour, can/should we sub the bread flour with no other amendments?

Well today I thought I'd go the other way so I used Rose Levy Berenbaum's Chocolate Chiffon recipe which differs from the Spago recipe in that it has: - 170g cake flour instead of 140g AP - 50g cocoa instead of 80g - 3/4 cup water instead of 1/2 cup - 6 yolks and 10 whites instead of 4 yolks and 6 whites I remembered when I first made it exactly as written I found it to be lovely and moist. So I reduced the flour to 140g and replaced it with cocoa (total 80g same as Spago's). I made sure to remove it from the oven once the tester was no longer wet but had a few moist crumbs clinging. Well it fell out of the pan while cooling and developed a rubbery crust all round. Disaster. So I guess it's back to tweaking the Spago recipe - yes, with more water!

Thank you everyone for the really useful tips. And k8memphis, for the pronounciation guide... how would anyone have ever guessed!! I will post back on my experiences when I start... not till August though.

I'm a novice home/hobby baker but have been offered an invaluable opportunity to "help out", without pay, in the baking and pastry kitchen of a 5-star hotel here, to pick up some knowledge. I'm quite over-the-moon about it! So I've found out from this forum that this is called "staging" - is it called the same when the person doing it is totally inexperienced? Anyway I wanted to get some tips and advice on what I should and should not be doing in terms of etiquette and good form - of course want to be truly helpful/useful and at the same time learn as much as I can, but also don't want to -off the PC through gaucheness and getting underfoot. It's always good to be prepared and know what to expect.

Since they're only for our own consumption, that should be easy