Baking 101

[Ling]

I always oil my pans for cakes (except angelfood or chiffon), but do not flour them. The flour doesn't do anything besides create an unsightly "crust" of greasy white stuff in areas on your cake. You could also use parchment.

Edited July 8, 2006 by Ling (log)

[mrbigjas]

I was about to pipe up to say there were cakes baked long before the development of electronic kitchen appliances.  You should be fine.

I don't know how urban your life is, but now is high season for yard sales.  I bet you could find a hand mixer for a few bucks at just the right one.  Mine is an inexpensive hand-me-down and has been humming along effectively for decades.  Not as pretty as a lemon yellow or forest green KitchenAid, but it does speed up some things and cost much less than a copper bowl.

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my life is urban enough that we call them sidewalk sales, not yard sales.....

but i resisted blowing my hard-earned gift certificates at williams-sonoma to buy a kitchen aid today. as the joy of cooking says, if you learn to do this stuff by hand you can get a feel for what you're doing.

so i creamed the butter and brown sugar, and then added the egg and vanilla, and then we beat it for probably 15 minutes. i tried it with a wooden spoon, with a whisk, and with a silicon spatula. at some point it just stopped making any difference even though it was still a little gritty, so that's when i gave up, and added the flour and other liquid and leavening and other flour and whatnot. the cake is baking now, and looks and smells fantastic. we'll see how it turns out, texture-wise. thanks folks.

[SweetTraditionsNY]

Hi all. I'm new here, and am finding fantastic information on this site. Thanks to all for sharing!

My mother and I have a small business doing wedding cakes and desserts and baked goods, etc. so I spend plenty of time baking cakes. I just wanted to offer a few comments from my own experience.

First, you certainly can do your mixing by hand. You don't NEED any particular mixer. Also, you can walk to the supermarket for your groceries, or you can drive a Lexus. Kitchen Aid mixers are the love of my life... we have three. The first was a gift that my father purchased for my mother almost 20 years ago, and it is the largest, and the one we still use most. The other two are "baby" mixers, the non-commercial size. My mixer, the most recent addition to our happy little mixer family, was purchased on sale at a department store for around $170, which seems like a lot to some people. However, after using my mixer for about two weeks, it met with a tragic accident. For whatever reason, the bowl flipped up and the beater got stuck and fried the motor. I immediately emailed the company, and had a new mixer sent to me via UPS in less than a week. I sent the broken mixer back, which UPS picked up at my door a few days after I had received it's replacement. They paid all the shipping, and even followed up with me to make sure the new mixer was working properly. I cannot say enough good things about the company! Plus, the mixers are truly top of the line. Even Emeril uses one!

Also, in previous posts I found excellent advice on testing your oven temperature, and finding "hot-spots". The sugar cookies are a wonderful idea, and not something I would have ever thought of. Ovens are all different, it's true... and I believe that even the best of the best would burn stuff in my oven trying it out the first time. I have a thermometer and check it OFTEN.

When is a cake done? Depends on how you like it. Moist is preferable in most cases. I can't stand cake that feels like sawdust in your mouth, and I do believe this is where many novice bakers go wrong. Personally, I don't use a heat core or flower nail for any size layer, but after reading notes on it speeding baking time, I might just start.

One thing to remember... baking is partly exact formula, and a greater part love. I made about 800 loaves of white bread (most of which turned out to only be suitable for propping open a heavy door on a nice spring day) before I learned that it wasn't my lack of kneading skills, it was my recipe. For those of you out there who want to try baking as something "new", please, I implore you, get a recipe from a trusted friend or relative. Get a recipe that someone has had repeated sucess with. Then, get them to watch over your shoulder and help you along. The recipes I use for my business for the most part have been passed down in a badly deteriorating notebook that once belonged to my grandmother. Her recipes were her mother's and grandmother's before her. Those are the recipes that mean the most, and the ones that will make you go... it was worth the time... when those cookies come out of the oven!

[RuthWells]

...so I diligently buttered every nook and cranny, even though the bundt pan was already nonstick. 

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Bundt pans are notoriously difficult to grease adequately, even the non-stick ones. What works for me is a liberal coating of a non-stick spray which includes flour, such as Bakers Joy or Pam With Flour. Some people swear by a homemade concoction of shortening, flour, and water (I think). I feel that the sprays do a better job of reaching every nook of the sculpted pans.

[Beanie]

...so I diligently buttered every nook and cranny, even though the bundt pan was already nonstick. 

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Bundt pans are notoriously difficult to grease adequately, even the non-stick ones. What works for me is a liberal coating of a non-stick spray which includes flour, such as Bakers Joy or Pam With Flour. Some people swear by a homemade concoction of shortening, flour, and water (I think). I feel that the sprays do a better job of reaching every nook of the sculpted pans.

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I've used the above sprays with success. In an earlier thread, Chefpeon gave instructions for making baker's grease, a much cheaper alternative if you're baking in volume.

[sanrensho]

Some people swear by a homemade concoction of shortening, flour, and water (I think).

The baker's grease mentioned in the post above is shortening, flour and oil, if that's what you're referring to. I use this almost exclusively, thanks to Chefpeon's post.

[alanamoana]

bumping this one back up: is it possible to make a cake without a stand or hand mixer?

i don't have one.  but there's this cake that i got the recipe for, and of course it involves beating butter and brown sugar, then adding an egg, and then some liquid, and then something else....

i know that they made cakes before there were mixers.  how did that work?  i really feel the need to have this cake, but i don't have the money or inclination to buy a mixer right this second. 

so what should i do?

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before i had a kitchenaid, the cakes i made were more european torte-like in method. it is a little easier to manage when all you're doing is whipping egg whites and whisking sugar and yolks instead of beating butter with sugar.

i hope your cake comes out delicious. let us know the results please.

[mrbigjas]

i hope your cake comes out delicious.  let us know the results please.

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it did indeed come out delicious, and i thank you all for your help.

and beating it wasn't THAT hard. i mean, my arm was tired (especially because a little later i had to whip cream to go on top of it), but it wasn't unbearable.

it was hard to know when to stop, though.

[Torrilin]

i hope your cake comes out delicious.  let us know the results please.

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it did indeed come out delicious, and i thank you all for your help.

and beating it wasn't THAT hard. i mean, my arm was tired (especially because a little later i had to whip cream to go on top of it), but it wasn't unbearable.

it was hard to know when to stop, though.

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Keep in mind that it's *very* difficult to overbeat anything if working by hand. You can do it, but until you develop the necessary physical strength and endurance, it's not easy.

Emily

[mrbigjas]

i hope your cake comes out delicious.  let us know the results please.

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it did indeed come out delicious, and i thank you all for your help.

and beating it wasn't THAT hard. i mean, my arm was tired (especially because a little later i had to whip cream to go on top of it), but it wasn't unbearable.

it was hard to know when to stop, though.

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Keep in mind that it's *very* difficult to overbeat anything if working by hand. You can do it, but until you develop the necessary physical strength and endurance, it's not easy.

i've heard that--it wasn't so much that i was worried about overbeating it, as that i didn't know when i'd beaten it enough...

[alanamoana]

okay, this topic has really hit the gutter now...

[LittleIsland]

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.

[Kerry Beal]

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.

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It can't???

[alanamoana]

i'm with kerry on this one. i've never had trouble whipping any kind of cream. you can even whip creme fraiche...

[miladyinsanity]

Maybe you took it too long LittleIsland?

[Sugarella]

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.

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Did you by any chance whip it by hand? Whipping in an oval motion they way you'd do egg whites and pulling the cream up out of the bowl towards you with each motion can cause that.

Try whipping it by letting the whisk rest against the bottom of your bowl, and just use a side to side motion.

45% cream can be whipped, definitely.

[LittleIsland]

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.

[miladyinsanity]

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.

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Wait, it still turned to butter even though you added the sugar already?

Huh. I'd have thought the sugar would help prevent it turning into butter.

[LittleIsland]

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!

[miladyinsanity]

Will custards made with egg yolks scramble without sugar?

I absentmindedly forgot to add the sugar, and the eggs scrambled. I did temper in the eggs, so it's definitely not that.

[SweetSide]

I believe without the sugar, they are more easily overcooked. Sounds like you had two "oops" moments...

[SweetSide]

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.

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Wait, it still turned to butter even though you added the sugar already?

Huh. I'd have thought the sugar would help prevent it turning into butter.

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No, the sugar won't prevent it from turning into butter. I've made "sweet butter" on a few too many occasions when I was called away...

[miladyinsanity]

I believe without the sugar, they are more easily overcooked.  Sounds like you had two "oops" moments...

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Thank you, SweetSide. It makes sense to me now. Sigh. No chocolate mousse for me--though you'd think that with a chocolate cake and a batch of brown sugar ice cream base in the fridge I'd have nothing to sigh about.

[NYC Mike]

Ok, here is a question for you all on yeast.

I was looking to buy "instant yeast" and could not find that exactly at the local market. What I did find was Fleishmann's Bread Machine Yeast for all my "rapid rise" recipes.

Are these the same thing? Did I get the right thing?

Thanks,

-Mike

[tino27]

Ok, here is a question for you all on yeast. 

I was looking to buy "instant yeast" and could not find that exactly at the local market.  What I did find was Fleishmann's Bread Machine Yeast for all my "rapid rise" recipes.

Are these the same thing?  Did I get the right thing?

Thanks,

-Mike

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Yep, you should be able to use them interchangably.

ETA: Try looking for instant yeast at your local Sam's Club-esque type place -- they usually sell them in hermetically sealed 1 pound bags. They are wicked cheap for the amount of yeast you get. I usually keep them sealed until I am ready to use them and then keep the yeast in an airtight container in my freezer. I've never had any problems with it.

Edited August 17, 2006 by tino27 (log)