CLASSIC CAKES WE LEARNED TO BAKE

by:

May 6, 2020

This class was all about technique. Once you got the basics down, you can throw it down, yum, yum, you go pro baker! Save me a slice. Please mail photos of your success (or failure) baking experience to: i am a baking queen and let’s see your awesome photo online!
Ingredients
OLD SKOOL CARROT CAKE 
  • DRY INGREDIENTS
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbs + 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tbs+ 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbs+1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • STEP 1: Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and stir together.
  • WET INGREDIENTS
  • 2 cups oil, Canola or other oil
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 8 eggs
  • 6 cups grated carrots 
  • STEP 2: Combine oil, eggs and sugar. Whisk together and stir in the carrots.
  • STEP 3: Combine wet + dry.
  • FINAL CAKE STEP: pour batter into a prepared cake pan, loaf or muffin pan.
  • Bake at 350 degree preheated oven for 30 – 40 minutes.
  • Muffins bake in 15 to 20 minutes.
  • The cake can be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen.
  •  
  • TRADITIONAL CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
  • 1 pound cream cheese, which is two packets
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla, and we know that Trevor much prefers vanilla paste, over vanilla extract
  • METHOD: Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla, in the bowl of an electric mixer using the paddle attachment, until nice and smooth.
  • Now decorate the cake with the creme cheese frosting.
  • That was the easy as pie beginning. Then it got a little more challenging…..
  • CLASSIC GENOISE CAKE 
  • STEP 1:
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • Pre heat oven to 350 degrees
  • prep your cake pans by adding greased parchment paper and dust it with flour.
  • In a double boiler, so a sauce pan with a few inches of water barely simmering,
  • Place a large bowl over the water and add the eggs and the sugar,
  • whisk, per Trevor’s recommendation, with your bare clean hand (or gloved hand) until the egg mixture is just lukewarm to the touch.
  • Yeah, you read that right.
  • Hand whisk.
  • As in whisk with your hand, not a hand-held whisk.
  • He stuck his hand in there, into the gooey egg white mixture, and told us this was “da bomb” pro method and then proceeded by whisked those eggs all around.
  • With his hand.
  • Until they were just about, warmer than, body temperature.
  • PRO TIP: don’t add the sugar to the eggs until you are ready to start whisking.
  • Because when the sugar to sit on the yolks, they “burn”
  • and tiny egg crystals form in your cake batter which we don’t want.
  • Now when your eggs and sugar is perfect body temperature,
  • as you have established by whisking by hand,
  • now transfer the bowl to the electric mixer and whisk on high-speed for 5 minutes.
  • Then reduce the to medium and keep whisking until eggs are thick and shiny and completely cool, about another 12 minutes.
  • Make sure to reduce the speed to medium to prevent over whipping the batter, which will produce large air bubbles in the cake.
  • PRO TIP: always use room temperature eggs, because they whip better than cold and so you shall get a better whip.
  • PRO TIP: When the eggs and sugar is whisking in the bowl, watch as the batter comes up the sides:
  • higher, higher, higher, and when it no longer continues to rise, you are done!
  • PRO TIP: Another way to test your eggs have been whipped to perfection, is to draw a line through the whipped eggs with your finger.
  • When the line, the indentation if you will, stays put, you are all done and ready to go.
  • STEP 2
  • 3/4 cup + 1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • OPTIONAL: 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • Sift your flour into the whipped eggs, yes I said, sift, not pour
  • and now we will once again,
  • whip out, the hand whip. YES!!
  • The hand, that is the whisk, so plop your (clean) or (gloved) hand into the batter,
  • NO, don’t use a spatula, because you will have lumps of flour in your cake if you use a spatula.
Instructions
  1. The rule is: the hand rules!
  2. As you gently whisk your (clean) or gloved hand around in the batter, combining the flour into the eggs, spin the bowl around.
  3. Be gentle as you don’t want to lose the “lift” of your batter,
  4. Add vanilla paste and pinch of salt.
  5. Still stirring with your hand.
  6. If using butter (it would then be a denser cake,more of a pound cake if you will,) then you would now stir in 4 tablespoons of melted and cooled butter.
  7. Pour the batter into your prepared cake pan, gently tapping the pan to remove any air bubbles.
  8. Bake for 10 minutes, then raise the heat to 375 degrees and bake until done, about 20 minutes more.
  9. Turn the cake upside down onto a plate and allow to cool.
  10. SIMPLE SYRUP
  11. cup sugar + 1/2 Cup water – cook over low heat until sugar is melted.
  12. Once the cake is cool, you can brush it with the sugar glaze, or other flavored syrup of your choice.
  13. Here you can get creative and make this cake your own!

Photo and Food Styling by Mimi Newman

 
 
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