I laughed out loud. Wowzers. Perfect! Admittedly I never imagined something like CAKE to be so complex. I love science based reading on foodstuffs - but admittedly - even if I understand something science wise as I read it...my brain is quick to forget or retain the things I read to memory. It's gotten worse over time...but I still try.
I reached Chapter 5 of the How Baking Works book. It's exceptionally helpful...but so far it feels like quite a compendium of knowledge one can easily drown in (and I am since each ingredient is essentially one whole chapter!). I learned a lot about cake flour that I wasn't aware of - such as how cake flour has starch granules that can absorb a lot of water and swell - allowing for a thicker rather than thinner batter which is supposed to set nicer. Then I read about how cake flour can make cookies that are like cakes......assuming everything else is the same - it won't spread as much. Though I wonder what cake flour + butter would do - I didn't get to that test. Admittedly the recipe is given as classroom instructional.
It seems a lot of the learning about "seeing" faults in cake formulations comes from a complete grasp of the ingredient science...one which I don't honestly know if I will ever get down intricacy wise unless I do a bunch of experiments per the book....which I don't think I can do them all - but I'll try. It seems your analysis is spot on. A lot of these books will give tables...and no visuals...same with Gisslen (makes me frown). I'd kill for a more visual guide to these problems than text-descriptions in table-form.
I have seen these photos. That cake looks appetizing. I definitely think you have a vast compendium of wisdom when it comes to cakes! I was surprised - since about 99.9% of youtube videos on cake show brown crusting. Something that admittedly turned me away from cakes. I always found that gross - so I never really delved further into cakes besides jaconde and biscuit sponges.
Watching Great British Bake Off always make me want to do something with cake, but I always realize that it's too much misinformation out on the internet - so I never bothered. Seems there's all these incorrect ways of doing things that are "passable" as cake but not ideal.
The HI-RATIO shortening I have is SWEETEX CAKE & ICING shortening ....so I'm not sure how this one fares. I just got to the fat section of How Baking Works (I may have skipped a bit, but I promise to go back lol). It's interesting - but it would seem they recommend some form of creaming with plastic shortening and a two-stage method...whereas with hi-ratio liquid - its a one-stage method with no creaming...I may have to re-read it.
I have fat-daddio pans that are 3" - but only 8" diameter - so no core necessary? I figured - the higher the pan height - the more "height" I can get on the cake without over-doming. But from reading what you mentioned, it seems even a cake core is needed for these? Is the heat conductivity of anodized aluminum the reason the fat daddio's baked more intensely? I believe you still use baking rings (Damp) for your chicago metallic pan as well, right?
It's great to know about baking temperatures. In the past - I tried baking at 275F or 300F - and ended up with (now that I read how baking works) - gelatinized rubbery starch at the bottom! Yayyy. Looked like a smooth rubbery cake. x_x. It was a play on adding bananas to chocolate - and I just thought "lower bakes more evenly" but clearly this is a myth. Or people baking lower - have stronger ovens? I saw some people on this forum claiming they bake at 300F for "more even cakes." Any comments on this from a professional like yourself? I have always baked chocolate cakes lower, and even at 325F - and ended up with a raw or gummy cake. But I'm aware without a recipe - it's hard to diagnose. I hope "How Baking Works" approaches the cake formulation rules soon....
Admittedly - my favorite types of cakes (in my head) would be similar to cakes with 1 inch layers between each frosting. I don't like thick (2"-3") stacks piled on top of another like a lot of youtubers do for fondant cakes...gross :/
Currently - I want to bake a cake - but I have "choice paralysis" trying to figure out what recipe won't be utter crud. Guess I'll have to opt-out and do more reading.
1) “I reached Chapter 5 of the How Baking Works book. It's exceptionally helpful...but so far it feels like quite a compendium of knowledge one can easily drown in (and I am since each ingredient is essentially one whole chapter!).”
The best way to build baking knowledge is to keep baking binders. I organize by categories. At the front of the binder keep bullet lists of necessary information and troubleshooting guides. Before you begin a baking project. Just quickly review some of the bullet lists.
When you bake regularly, you begin to memorize a lot of the information. A couple of months ago my son asked me to bake a batch of chocolate chips cookie. I was in his kitchen, so I grabbed an envelope and calculated the baker’s percentages from memory. Over the years I’ve made so many batches of cookies that I don’t need written baker’s percentages, mixing instructions, dough temperature, or baking times.
The more you bake, the more it all becomes committed to memory.
2) “I learned a lot about cake flour that I wasn't aware of - such as how cake flour has starch granules that can absorb a lot of water and swell - allowing for a thicker rather than thinner batter which is supposed to set nicer.”
Flour is milled by separating the wheat kernel into its parts: bran, endosperm, and germ.
The parts are then milled separately. These are referred to as streams. To make different flours, different percentages of streams are blended. Some millers will blend different wheat varieties to create specific characteristics for the flour.
Cake flour is made from the endosperm stream. The endosperm is essentially pure starch. It is bleached to increase performance and lighten the color.
The water and heat trigger starch gelatinization. Starch gelatinization happens in all baking; it also happens when any starch is mixed with water and heat. For example, starch gelatinization is used in sauces, custards, and creams. Wheat starch, cornstarch, tapioca starch, and potato starch are the most common starches used in baking and cooking.
Cake flour will compress into a clump due to the low extraction rate and high starch content of the endosperm
All purpose flour has a higher extraction rate, so more bran and germ blended back in. You can see the lower starch content makes a flour that will not stick to itself like cake flour.
This 110 flour has a higher extraction rate than all purpose flour. The low starch content can be seen in a flour that doesn't clump.
3) “A lot of these books will give tables...and no visuals...same with Gisslen (makes me frown). I'd kill for a more visual guide to these problems than text-descriptions in table-form.”
Yes, it is very frustrating that visual illustrations are not provided in textbooks. That’s why I saved the “perfect white cake” photo—it’s a perfect illustration of a cake formulated with too much sugar.
4) “The HI-RATIO shortening I have is SWEETEX CAKE & ICING shortening ....so I'm not sure how this one fares.”
Full disclosure, I am not a fan of shortening. However, in classes and some situations I have been required to use shortening. I’ve used the old Sweetex, not the new version. The old Sweetex performed well. A lot of bakeries that regularly use shortening complained that the new formulation has not performed well. But it’s not just the Sweetex brand, it’s all brands.
5) “I have fat-daddio pans that are 3" - but only 8" diameter - so no core necessary?”
No heating core is needed if you are not filling the pan more than 1/2 full. Use a heating core for any pan more than 2” deep when filling 2/3 full; when the pan diameter is 10” or larger.
Keep in mind that filling half full doesn’t produce a good cake. This cake was baked by an extremely talented pastry chef. She only fills the 3” pan half full. but as you can see, the anodized aluminum causes the cake to make too hot. The result is a hard dry crust all around and a domed cake.
6) “I tried baking at 275F or 300F - and ended up with (now that I read how baking works) - gelatinized rubbery starch at the bottom!”
Oven temperature is only part of the equation. A successful product requires an appropriate finished batter/dough temperature. Desired Dough Temperature (DDT) is often centered on yeast doughs. But it is equally important in batters. A finished butter cake batter should not exceed 68°F. Above that temperature, butter plasticity is lost. Below that, the stages of baking are delayed resulting in a rubbery, dense, chewy cake.
The oven temperature needs to be in sync with the finished batter/dough temperature.
Stages of Baking:
- Fats melt: 92°F butter melts Butter is an emulsion of fat and water; butter separates at this temperature.
- 140°F (60°C) the second stage of double-acting baking powder activates. Gases expand and form: the water heats, then turns to steam. The steam expands the batter.
- Sugars dissolve; the rate of solubility of sugar depends on temperature and liquid content; the warmer the batter/dough and the higher the liquid content, the faster the sugar dissolves.
- 144°F (60°C) protein denaturalization begins
- 122°F (50°C) starch gelatinization begins
- Gasses evaporate
- 310°F (155°C) Maillard reaction occurs
In a professional convection oven, the baking temperature can be reduced below 325°F. But these ovens are designed to evenly circulate hot air between multiple pans on multiple racks. A home oven does not perform like a commercial oven.
