Bake a Perfect Cake
There are several secrets to making a beautiful, delicious cake that looks as good as it tastes!
1. Make sure you start with good ingredients (skip the cake mix, make a real cake). Use cake flour instead of
all-purpose flour (available in the bulk department; use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cake flour for every cup of
all-purpose flour). Have all your ingredients at room temperature (milk, eggs, butter), this helps them blend smoothly.
When making a cake with butter, cream the butter and sugar together before adding the eggs. Then add the eggs one
at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. Sift your dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then stir
everything together.
2. Get real cake pans. Many cake pans have sloped edges, which means that the sides of the cake will form an uneven rik-rak when you
stack the layers. These pans are absolutely worthless, throw them out! Buy some real cake pans with straight edges; many
stores carry their real cake pans in the cake decorating section, not in the kitchen section.
3. Don't grease and flour your cake pans, use parchment paper (or the reusable alternative)
instead. Cut a circle or square the exact size of the bottom of your pan and simply place it in the pan before you
pour the batter in. After the cake is done, you can let it cool in the pan as long as you want. When you are ready to
remove it from the pan, slide a knife around the edge to loosen the sides of the cake, dump the cake upside down, and peel
off the parchment paper. Never worry again about the big chunks that stick to the pan and leave big holes in your cake!
4. Insulate your cake pans. In most ovens, the metal sides of the cake pans will heat up quickly, causing the edges
to cook sooner than the middle of the cake. This results in dry edges, cracked centers, and a big mounded lump in the
middle of your cake. Some professional cake decorators simply slice off the mound, but you can avoid the mound if
you insulate your pans. Take an old towel and cut strips as wide as your pan is tall (usually two inches). If the
strips aren't long enough to go around the whole pan, use two or more strips and join them with pins. Soak the strips
in cold water until they are thoroughly wet, then squeeze most of the water out of them (not all the water!) and wrap them
tightly around the outside of your cake pan. Simply join the ends with a straight pin. Your cake should now cook evenly
and be perfectly flat on top! (You may still get a slight mound in the center, just slice it off with a bread knife
when this happens.) When testing to see if the cake is done (with
the clean toothpick trick), make sure you test on the very edge of the cake, not just the center. With this method, sometimes
the edge is the last part to finish baking.
5. Add yummy fillings. When stacking a layer cake, don't forget to put delicious fillings between the layers. Using a pastry bag or a
plastic bag, pipe a thick "dam" around the edge to hold the filling in. Make your own fillings from scratch, or
use ready-made fillings. You can use cream pie fillings, fruit pie fillings, chocolate pudding, etc. Get creative and think
of delicious flavor combinations, such as chocolate cake with cream cheese icing and strawberry filling. Mmmmmmmm.
6. Smooth your frosting. If you are decorating your cake, it will look much better with a smooth canvas of frosting. Apply
an even layer of frosting to the cake. Fill a jar or tall glass with very hot water and set it next to the cake. Also have
on hand a clean dish towel. Dip a metal knife in the water and let the knife heat up a bit. Then use the hot knife to smooth
the frosting on the cake. As soon as frosting starts to stick to the knife, wipe the knife off with the dish towel. Place
the knife back in the hot water and repeat this process until the surface of your cake is smooth. Placing your cake on a
lazy susan or turn table will make this job a lot easier.
7. Decorate! Some people are too nervous to try decorating with frosting, but it isn't that hard. It just takes a
little practice. And here's a little secret: when something doesn't turn out the way you wanted, remove the offending
section with a butterknife, and start over! ("How did you not mess up on the lettering?" a friend asked me. "I did mess up,
then I removed the messed up parts." "Oh.") Even if you think your cake looks horrible, your friends and family won't
notice the flaws, they'll think
that it is just wonderful! Besides, you're just going to eat it anyway, right?
Here are some websites that offer good decorating instructions and recipes:
AZCentral.com: Cake Decorating
Wilton Decorating Techniques
Wilton Recipe Box
Three-Tier Wedding Cheesecake (my favorite!)
|
 |
