This week we began the culinary saga that is cake. We started the day by talking about chemical leavening agents (i.e. baking powder and baking soda). We combined them with cold water, warm water, and lime juice. I didn't take pictures of that because I figured we all remember doing this in kindergarden. For those of you that don't know, baking powder is baking soda, plus an acid and combining agent. That means that it will react when it is hydrated, unlike baking soda which needs an acid to get a full reaction. Also, all baking powder that you buy is double acting, which means it reacts once when it is hydrated and again when it is heated.
We made three cakes in the afternoon. The first was a biscuit (pronounced bis-quee) which is basically egg, butter, and sugar. We put these into the freezer to make into roulades on Tuesday. The second cake was a genoise which is made with eggs, flour, sugar, and melted butter. This cake was very dry and bland. It is normally brushed with a syrup before it is assembled into a layered cake. The final cake we made was a high ratio cake which has more sugar than flour and more egg than fat. This cake was very light and springy. (Mine was a little denser than it should have been, because my e.g.g whites were under whipped.) I didn't take pictures of any of these because they just looked like coat layers.
We also did another muffin exercise with different amounts of eggs. The ratio of egg can change the the texture of cake. You can see the results below.
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| Egg Experiment |
Tuesday
The first thing we did on Tuesday was fill our roulades with sweetened whipped cream, rolled them up, and put them in the freezer.
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| Our filled and rolled roulades and put them back in the freezer |
The second thing we made was a financier which is a dense cake that is characterized by the use of browned butter.
The rest of the day was filled by making different little cakes/tea cakes. I made madeleines, which are defined by their characteristic shape and the hump on the back. The hump is from baking the batter after chilling it in the fridge. This recipe was a little bland so it would be good to eat/dip in coffee or tea. I coated one of the pans in sugar which made the madeleines dry out less when baking. It also kept them from getting super brown.
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| Sugarcoated Madeleines |
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| Normal Madeleines (There was a casualty on the bottom right...sad) |
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| Closeup |
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| Look at those humps! |
I also wanted to share some photos of what the other students made!
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| Green Tea Financier |
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| Lemon Poppy Seed Olive Oil Cake |
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