8 posts tagged “cakes”

Piping a buttercream on a rose nail is not as easy as it looks. It took me a good 45 minutes before I got a decent rose. I’ll be back at it Tuesday night to master this technique. I found this video on “you tube,”  and step-by-step photos for a closer look with instructions in the comment box. These are an excellent illustration of what we are trying to do in class. I’ve also added a buttercream recipe for you to practice.

To make the rose, I used a Wilton featherweight decorating bag 12 in. , a Wilton no. 104 petal decorating tip and a rose nail from Ateco #907.

 

Buttercream

280 g butter

40 g shortening

140 g vanilla pudding (cold)

5 g vanilla flavour

290 g icing sugar

 

Directions: Mix all ingredients with paddle to smooth and light consistency.

Ouch! Three burns later, I completed my Croquembouche under 1 hour and 45 minutes. Chef Barbara liked the colour of the caramel –she said, “ perfect colour”, the choux paste were piped to the right size, and baked to the exact crisp. Completing those items gave me 30 out of 40, plus my speed, technique and cleanliness. I lost marks on the narrow base, which gave me a tilt and the spaces between puffs. You would think I would be good in geometry, but when it came to building the Croquembouche –my structure was a little off. Like everything else in life it’s all about the foundation.

I am super proud of myself, with very little exposure to pastry, the Croquembouche “looked great.” 

I am so excited for the next class on Gum and Flour Paste, starting March 15.

Signing out on pastry for a while.

Génoise is a sponge cake developed in the northern Italian city Genoa, adapted by the French and it is now the basic building block of European and Americain pastry. This extremely versatile cake is used for making several types of cakes from layer cakes, like the “Moka” to rolled cakes, “Bûches de Noël”, to ladyfingers.

A good génoise should be fine-textured, yet firm and of course not too moist. The classic proportions are 250 g each of sugar and flour for eight large eggs, plus 25 g to 50 g of butter.

A key component to assembling the cake is to brush the génoise layers with a syrup—flavoured or unflavoured. This brushing serves to moisten an already dry sponge cake.

I recommend preparing the génoise in a 9-inch round cake pan. This is the standard size for all of the cakes I am learning in class.

The bottom and top of the génoise round must be flat and level, otherwise your finished will look sloppy and lopsided. Unless your génoise is perfect, place it upside down on your countertop and begin to trim off any uneven parts of the bottom crust with a bread knife. Then turn it right side up and center in on your cake-decorating wheel, and trim off the top, if you have to.

When ready to cut this up in layers, to help guide the blade of your knife, hold one hand, palm down, on top of the génoise, slowly cut horizontal through the cake while turning the cake.

Lift off the top layer of the cake and turn it upside down on your countertop, and continue cutting in a horizontal direction.

Before you begin filling and frosting, remember to place the top layer of génoise that has been evened out, cut side down—this will serve the bottom of the cake. And don’t forget to brush the bottom and top of the bottom layer with syrup. Brush all cut faces with syrup. The cake should be moist, not soggy.

Here is the recipe for a standard génoise.

Directions:
1.    Combine the whole eggs and sugar in a stainless steel mixing bowl, break up the eggs with a wire whisk, and beat until smooth. Set the bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water, and stir and whisk until warm—100°F, frothy and pale yellow.
2.    Remove the bowl from the simmering water, and whip at medium speed in the mixer until the butter has risen and cooled, becoming light and thick and almost white in colour. It should coat your finger very quickly and form ribbons.
3.    Sift the flour and potato starch into a sheet of parchment paper. A little at a time, dust the mixture over the batter and fold in it very gently but thoroughly. When the flour and potato are completed incorporated, slowly pour the melted butter over the batter and continue folding until the butter is uniformly missed into the batter.
4.    For cake pans—scoop the batter into prepared cake pans, filling them to between 2/3 -3/4 of their height. Smooth the surface of the batter and make a slight depression in the centre. Place the cake pans on the baking sheet.
5.    Bake until the top of the génoise is lightly browned and firm to the touch but not crusty, about 17 to 20 minutes. The tip of the paring knife inserted in the centre of the cake should come out clean.
6.    Remove the cake from the oven and slide the tip of the paring knife or small spatula between the edge of each cake and the pan to loosen the edge. Let the génoise rest in the pans for about 5 minutes.

 

Ok, all of this cake talk in my class is starting to sink in. There is actually an order to cake baking. Here is what I could put together from the string of conversations I’ve been having with my Chef friends.

There are to two types of cakes: foam cakes and butter cakes. Foam cakes have a high proportion of eggs to flour. They are leavened solely by air beaten into whole eggs or egg whites. They contain very little, if any fat and have a spongy texture.

There are three types of foam cakes:

1)    Those that contain no fat are: angel food cake, meringue and dacquoise.
2)    Those where the only fat is the egg yolks: sponge cakes, biscuits and roulades
3)    Those that contain fat – butter and/or egg yolks: genoise and chiffons.

Butter cakes contain fat, and rely on a leavener powder, baking soda—for it to rise. They are flavourful than the foam cakes, and have a good texture and volume.

Most cakes are prepared using three butter cake methods: creaming methods, one bowl or quick method, or combination method.

1)    Creaming method is the most common and produces cakes with the greatest volume.
2)    The one bowl or quick method produces a very moist, dense, with a fine and velvety texture cake.  This method is faster and easier than the creaming method as the creaming step of the butter and sugar is eliminated.
3)    The combination method is when whipped egg whites are added to the creamed ingredients.  This method gives additional volume and light texture to your cake.

There are two foam cake methods: separated egg-method   (sponge, angel food, biscuit, roulade, chiffon, meringue, and dacquoise) and whole egg-method (genoise).

There are 100s of useful cake baking tips, here are few I recently learnt:

•    Cold eggs are easier to separate but make sure they are at room temperature before you beat them—it will give you more volume when beaten.

•    When you are whipping egg whites to make a meringue, start at a low speed to break the whites up. When a foam appears on the whites, and if you are not whipping the whites in a copper bowl, this is the time to add the cream of tartar (it works as a stabilizer). Gradually increase the speed to medium-high, and continue whipping until the whites form a very stiff peaks and just begin to slip and streak around the side of the bowl. Add the sugar in a steady stream and continue whipping at high speed for a few seconds longer to make the meringue smooth and shiny.

•    Butter cakes are done when a paring knife is inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  

•    Don’t stick a knife in one of these, I did, and the foam cake went super flat and shrunk in size—“a duh Lina moment.” Foam cakes are done when the top springs back when cake is touched.

 

The highlight of last week’s pastry class was the Croquembouche, a French dessert, often served at weddings. It’s a tower of pâte a choux filed with vanilla custard bound by caramel and, usually, decorated with threads of caramel. I dipped some of my little choux buns in coconut and crushed almonds. I’ve made hundreds of these  buns at home and freezed them—I’m planning before friends or family come over to crisp them up in the oven, and dip them in a ganache.  These little choux buns I hear can also be made with savoury fillings.

I’ve decided that my new year’s resolution for 2008 is to fatten up the world with French pastry delights-- mousse cakes, soufflés and various cream filled sponge cakes. A bit late, but I'm fulfilling my reslolution. My friends took down my impressive little tower in minutes as soon as I placed it on the kitchen table.

Here's a picture of the dessert. It's not the one I made, it's one of many pictures I snuck taking at LCB. I forgot to bring my camera to my last class. I'll try to replace it with my own--my guess is this will be on my final exam.

This cake takes its name from the Savoy region in the French Alps--great treat after a day of skiing.  I found a good recipe for a Savoy from Cake: The Art of the Modern French Baking and Decorating, a bit better than the one I scribbled down in one of my Le Cordon Blue notebooks. I’ve also included a recipe of Crème Anglaise – a rich vanilla sauce--to pour over a slice of this beautiful light and delicate sponge cake that has no butter!

If you don't have brioche parisienne mold that's shaped like a castle, you can use a layer-cake pan or a deep mold with 4 to 5 cup capacity. You will also need a mixer, a baking sheet and spatulas.

Directions:

Step 1: Set aside 1 tbsp of the superfine sugar. Combine the rest of the sugar with the egg yolks in the mixer and beat with the wire whip, starting off low and gradually increasing to medium speed until light, thick and smooth. Beat in the pure vanilla extract.

Step 2: To make the meringue, you will need a clean wire whip and bowl, whip the eggs whites in the mixture at a low speed until they start to froth. Gradually increase the whipping speed to medium-high and continue whipping until the whites form a very stiff peaks. Add the reserved 1 tbsp of sugar and continue whipping at high speed for a few seconds to incorporate the sugar.

Step 3: Sift the flour and potato starch (you get this at any supermarket, in the Kosher section. I found plenty of it at the "Herbs and Spice" ) over the egg yolk mixture, add about a third of the meringue, and stir with a spatula to mix quickly. Then gently fold in the remaining meringue.

Step 4: Scoop the batter into the mold, distributing it evenly. Smooth the batter from the centre up the sides of the pan to make depression in the centre.

Step 5: Place the mold on the baking sheet, and bake for 50 to 55 minutes at 325 °F. It's done with the top is rich uniform beige and firm to the touch, and the tip of knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven, and let it rest until it has cooled. When ready to serve, dust the cake with confectioners' sugar.

Serve the Savoy with Crème Anglaise in a sauceboat.
 

Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and scrape the seeds using the back of a paring knife. You will add the seeds to the sauce pan of milk (or cream) and whisk. Heat the milk over moderately low heat until hot or steaming, but not burning.  While the milk is heating, whisk the sugar to the egg yolks. Whisk thoroughly so that the sugar dissolves into the eggs. Once the milk is hot, combine with the egg yolks. To prevent the hot milk form cooking the eggs, just add a little of the milk into the eggs and whisk vigorously to keep the eggs from scrambling—this is called tempering. Then slowly add the eggs to the milk, stirring constantly until it thickens. Don’t let this mixture boil would make it curdle. The sauce is done when the sauce coats the back of the wooden spoon—this will take a good 8 minutes.