We have been experimenting with them recently, with recipes from Playing with Fire and Water, Michael Laiskonis' (PDF)and a recent Sosa demonstration by Jordi Puigvert. So far we have made a yoghurt version with fresh and dried yoghurt (Sosa recipe). Chocolate (PWFAW) and beetroot (ML). The best was the yoghurt - the most consistently cooked, the lighest and the one which most admirably stood up to the huge egg flavour. I would like to make it with less eggs, and Michael Laiskonis' recipe calls for egg white only, whereas the others want yolks too. The beetroot version with egg white was dense and sticky and had none of the ethereal quality of the yoghurt. I haven't found much on the internet specifically about the job of each ingredient in the environment of the microwave, but this thread is a good find... This is the recipe from Sosa by Jordi Puigvert "Tomato Sponge Cake Whole Eggs 200g Flour 25g Tomato Powder 20g Salt and Pepper Blend ingredients, charge with 2 charges (small iSi) or 3 (big) 30-40 secs in an 800w microwave" It still has loads of egg, but using full-flavoured ingredients will help. There seems to be some benefit to using freeze-dried fruit powders in place of their 'wet' iterations - i suspect the beetroot puree i used is making the cake sludgy. I am literally off now to try again ( we are doing the cakes for 100 tomorrow when we give our first lecture at Leith's School of Food and Wine - so my god i hope this next test works) I will post any results if they can further our understand of this cool technique.
