Rainbow cake

Rainbow cake - ny. Liem

Bahan :

7 telur
115 gram gula
100 gram terigu (segitiga biru)
17 gram maizena
17 gram susu bubuk
13 gram emulsifier (SP)
65 gram butter (wysman)
65 gram margarin (blueband)
1/4 sdt baking powder
1/2 sdt vanila ekstrak
1 sdt untuk masing – masing dari 6 warna
(saya cuma punya 5 warna, utk orange dicampur pewarna merah dan kuning)

Cara Membuat :

Kocok telor, gula dan emulsifier sampai mengembang (10-15 menit dengan kecepatan tinggi).
Turunkan kecepatan mixer ke yang paling rendah, masukkan tepung terigu,maizena dan susu bubuk, baking powder sambil diayak, aduk rata. (saya ayak dulu tepung dan campur semua bahan kering ini dalam satu wadah lalu, lalu tuang sedikit demi sedikit dalam adonan)
Masukkan butter dan margarin yang telah dilelehkan dan vanila ekstrak, aduk rata kembali dengan spatula.
Timbang untuk satu warna 125 gr.
Panggang selama 7 menit dengan suhu 190 derajat celcius.

Tips:
Untuk menghindari adonan turun karena menunggu oven satu persatu, setelah selesai campuran tepung, jangan dicampur mentega leleh dulu. Adonan dan mentega lelehnya masing2 dibagi 2. Saya pakai oven tangkring dengan 3 tingkatan. Jadi bagian yg pertama yang akan naik oven (3 warna), beri mentega leleh dan aduk rata, lalu tuangkan bagi ke dalam 3 wadah, beri pewarna dan essense vanila. Tuang ke dalam loyang yang telah diolesi mentega dan dialasi kertas roti lalu dioles mentega lagi. Panggang kira2 10 menit. Ulangi hal yang sama pada adonan bagian kedua.
Buttercream:

250 gr shortening
100 gram margarin
1 sdt esens vanilla
1 kaleng susu kental manis
50 gram gula bubuk (atau sesuai selera)

Untuk memberi rasa keju saya beri whipping cream+keju parut halus yang dimasak (perbandingan 1:1, 100gr whipping cream:100 gr keju)
Kocok semua sampai lembut

Taiwanese Bread

Taiwanese Bread ala bread talk 

Bahan A (adonan biang)
Tepung cakra 175 gr
Tepung segitiga 75 gr
Yeast atau ragi instant 10 gr
Air es 140 cc / ml

Bahan B (adonan utama)
Tepung terigu cakra 175 gr
Tepung segitiga 75 gr
Cold fresh milk 75 cc/ml
Cold fresh cream 35 gr
Gula pasir 125 gr
Garam 6 gr
Bread improver 5 gr atau 1 sdt
Butter 100 gr
Susu bubuk 15 gr
Kuning telur 1 butir

Cara membuat :

Uleni bahan A sampai kalis saja, simpan diwadah tertutup di chiller atau kulkas beberapa jam sampai mengembang full dua kali lipat.

Uleni bahan B, masukan bahan kering dahulu kecuali garam, masukan telur uleni dengan mixer roti, tuang fresh cream dan tuang juga fresh milk sedikit sedikit, selingi dengan memasukan adonan biang atau adonan A masukan butter lalu mixer kembali kalau sudah cukup kalis berhentikan pemberian susu cair. Tambahkan garam lalu mixer lagi dough hingga betul betul kalis elastis. Rounding dough lalu istirahatkan adonan selama sejam atau sampai dough mengembang dua kali lipat, kempeskan lalu bagi adonan menjadi beberapa bagian sesuai keinginan. Rounding lagi dan istirahatkan dough selama 15 sampai 20 menit. Ambil satu adonan isi dengan butter atau mentega beku yang sudah dipotong potong. Tutup bulatkan lagi dan tunggu hingga mengembang dua kali lipat lagi. Semprotkan soft topping coffee mocca menggunakan piping bag memutar mengelilingi roti hingga hampir tertutup. Panggang disuhu sedang 180○c sampai atasnya kering dan bawahnya matang.

Bahan isian :
Salted butter (mentega asin), bekukan. Potong dadu @10 gram

Topping (saya ambil dari gugel resep by Ricke ordinary kitchen):
50 gram mentega (unsalted butter)
50 gram gula halus
1 butir telur
60 gram terigu protein rendah
15 gram susu bubuk
1 sdt kopi instant hitam *saya pakai nescafe larutkan dengan 1 sdm air panas, dinginkan
1/2 sdt pasta coffee moca

Cara membuat soft topping :
Kocok mentega dan gula halus hingga benar2 lembut. Masukkan telur, kocok rata. Masukkan terigu dan susu bubuk. Aduk rata. Masukkan air kopi dan pasta coffee moca. Aduk rata. Masukkan ke dalam kantong segitiga atau piping bag. Simpan dalam kulkas hingga akan dipakai.

Sweet Bread 2

Bahan bahan :
Tepung protein tinggi 400 gr
tepung terigu protein sedang 200 gr
Yeast atau ragi instant 11 gr atau 1 sachet
Air es 200 ml atau gram
susu cair dingin (fresh milk) 75 ml atau gram
Gula pasir 80 gr
Garam 1/2 sdt
Bread improver 1 sdt
salted butter 120 gr
Susu bubuk 30 gr
Kuning telur 2 butir

Cara membuat :

masukan bahan kering dahulu kecuali garam, masukan telur uleni dengan mixer roti, tuang susu cair lalu masukkan air dingin sedikit sedikit jangan langsung semuanya ya takutnya kelembekkan karena kadar tepung suka berbeda beda kelembabannya selingi dengan memasukan butter lalu mixer kembali kalau sudah cukup kalis berhentikan pemberian air dingin. Tambahkan garam lalu mixer lagi dough hingga betul betul kalis elastis. Rounding dough lalu istirahatkan adonan selama sejam atau sampai dough mengembang dua kali lipat, kempeskan lalu bagi adonan menjadi beberapa bagian sesuai keinginan. Rounding lagi dan istirahatkan dough selama 15 sampai 20 menit. Gilas tipis dough lalu beri isian dan bentuk sesuai selera. Panggang disuhu sedang 175○c sampai atasnya kecoklatan dan bawahnya matang, kurang lebih 15 menit hingga 20 menit tergantung dari oven masing masing.

EGGSACTLY PERFECT BAKING

How many eggs exactly does it take to make a great cake? In a traditional 9-inch, two-layer American butter cake, four eggs seem to be the typical number found in most recipes, but other butter cake recipes call for anywhere from 2 to 6 eggs. So what number of eggs is really best?

First, let’s take a look at the role that eggs play in the characteristics of a cake. The inherent complexity of an egg, lends itself to a diverse number of roles in the cake’s final product. Here are the major duties eggs perform:

• Structure – Eggs are a major structure provider and give a cake firmness, lightness and stability.
• Aeration – Beaten eggs help to incorporate air into a cake batter and therefore aid in leavening.
• Emulsification – Emulsifiers in eggs bring fats and liquids together into a smooth batter, allowing for a moist cake that does not seem greasy.
• Flavor – Eggs play a significant role in the final taste profile of a cake.
• Color – The golden hue of egg yolks adds soft yellow pigmentation to both batter and cake.
• Moisture – Eggs are 75 percent liquid which can thin a batter a great deal.
• Fat Provision – Egg yolks are a good source of fat which can contribute to moistness and tenderness to the cake.

Knowing all of the facts about the functions of eggs in cake, it seems like it would be easy to determine how adding or subtracting a couple of eggs from a recipe would affect the final cake product; but unfortunately it is difficult to say which roles are the most significant and how other ingredients, with cross-over jobs, react when eggs are added or taken away. To get a real feel for what will happen we have to move beyond theory and into the oven.

Let’s take a look at what actually happens when you disrupt the egg balance in a cake recipe. I baked 5 eight-inch cake layers, each with a different number of eggs added, in order to get a feel for how egg volume variation contributes to changes in the overall cake. Each cake layer received 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 eggs (approximately equivalent to a cake recipe with 0, 3, 6, 9 or 12 eggs). Differences were noticeable immediately after the batters were mixed. The eggless batter was extremely thick in consistency and very pale in color while the 4-egg cake was more golden and thinner in consistency.

Once baked, taste was also a factor in the differences between the egg-varying cake layers. The layer with no eggs had a noticeable raw flour taste and was excessively sweet. The cake layer with four eggs was markedly eggy tasting like a baked custard or bread pudding. All three of the moderately-egged layers were pleasant tasting.

The most significant variance between the layers was their structure. The no-egg layer was short, dense and compact and had so little structural integrity I could barely remove a piece from the cake without if falling apart. The one-egg layer was still rather dense and compact but held together when cut. The two-egg cake layer was greater height and lighter texture with even more structural strength. The three-egg layer was even taller and lighter than the two-egg cake, but the egg structure was reaching the limits of its usefulness and the cake began to take on a slightly spongy texture. The four-egg layer was short, dense and rubbery (if you have ever had a génoise or chiffon cake fall you will know exactly what I am talking about).

Overall, changing the number of eggs in your cake recipe can alter the properties of your cake. Too few eggs will yield a cake that is overly compact and doesn’t hold together will. Too many eggs can leave you with a spongy or rubbery mess. But egg volumes can be manipulated to lighten the texture of a cake or add strength to a cake that needs to be carved. Try varying the number of eggs in your favorite recipe to determine “eggsactly” what works for you.

THE REVERSE CREAMING METHOD

Cakes can be mixed in any number of ways.  Most butter cakes are mixed in one of the following two ways: by the creaming method or the reverse-creaming method.  The creaming method is the most common.  In this classic method, the butter and sugar are mixed together followed by addition of the eggs, dry ingredients and liquids.  In the reverse-creaming method, the dry ingredients and the sugar are mixed together first.  Then the fats and a portion of the liquids are mixed into the dry ingredients followed by the remaining liquids.

Each of these approaches has advantages.  I wanted to look at the final outcome of the cakes mixed by these methods and observe the effects.  I mixed one cake with the creaming method, one cake with the reverse-creaming method and one cake as a control where I combined all of the ingredients in the mixer at once and mixed away.  This way I could compare the more formal mixing methods with an all-in free-for-all.

Before I get to the results, let’s take a quick look at what is going on in each of these methods and their benefits.

Creaming Method

• Beating butter and sugar together helps leaven a cake batter by driving air into the butter with the assistance of jagged sugar crystals.
• Adding eggs to the butter/sugar mix allows for thorough emulsification of fats.
• Gluten formation is minimized by alternating dry ingredients and liquids as they are incorporated into the butter mixture.

Reverse-Creaming

• Adding fats into dry ingredients insures that flour particles are well coated with fat.  This minimizes gluten formation.
• Including a small amount of liquid while mixing the fats into the dry ingredients allows the combination to blend thoroughly.  It also creates some structure in the batter.
• The fat/flour mixing minimizes the size of air particles that are incorporated, resulting in a finer crumb, theoretically.

All-In Method

• This is the easiest of the methods since there are not multiple mixing steps involved.
• Excess liquid present in the mixing phase makes it difficult to adequately blend in and emulsify the fat.
• The volume of liquid does not allow much incorporation of air pockets and thus contribute to leavening.

I have baked many cakes using both the creaming and reverse-creaming method and in the past have found that certain cake formulations generally work better with one method or the other.  For these trials, I used a basic vanilla butter cake and I was surprised to find, that in this recipe, the creaming method and the reverse method produced a nearly identical cakes.  Both of these cakes were light in texture with a moderately fine crumb.  The all-in cake was slightly denser with a tighter crumb, but even this simple mixing method produced a nice cake.

So what is the take-home message?  In a very basic cake, both the creaming and reverse methods work well to create an appealing cake.  It comes down to your preferred methodology.  If you are working on recipe development and you are having textural challenges, the creaming method can help to lighten a cake while the reverse method will often refine the cake’s crumb.  If you are in a hurry or need a tight crumb for carving, the all-in method may be your technique of choice.  The beauty is that you get to choose based on the situation or specific recipe needs.

Happy baking!

IS BUTTER REALLY BETTER?

Fat in cake plays a diverse set roles; it provides moistness, aeration (leavening), flavor, texture and tenderness.  The problem with determining which type of fat qualifies as the cake-fat champion is that different fats affect different characteristics of the cake.  Butter is known for its flavor profile, oil for moisture provision, shortening for aeration and margarine a combination of attributes.

In order to get a handle on how varied fats alter cake properties, I baked a vanilla cake recipe varying only the type of fat used.  The fats included butter, canola oil, shortening and stick-type margarine.  Here is what I discovered about using different fats in this cake.

BUTTER:
Being slightly butter prejudiced, I expected the butter cake to be the flavor standout.  What I found was that the flavor of the butter was difficult to detect even when compared directly to the other cakes.  I think if these cakes were laden with buttercream the subtle differences would be even less distinguishable.  The value of the butter came in its ability to create a beautifully fine-textured cake.  The small crumb size was noticeable when compared to the more open crumb of all of the other cakes.  This compact crumb does lead to a cake that has less height than the others, but even so, it did not seem overly dense.

OIL:
I was pleasantly surprised by the oil cake. I expected it to be moist, which it was; the oil cake was definitely the moistest of all of the cakes. But what I found interesting was that the oil cake was as tall and light as the shortening cake. I had expected the oil cake to be more short and dense since oil doesn’t hold air pockets as well as butter or shortening, but this was not the case. This cake did have a slightly coarser, more open crumb than the butter cake but the texture was by no means unpleasant. I also expected the oil cake to taste flat, yet it had a pleasant neutral vanilla flavor that tasted quite similar to the butter cake.

SHORTENING:
The shortening cake was by far my least favorite. While the cake was tall and light in density, the texture was coarse, dry and crumbly. The flavor was fine, but the texture was so unappealing that any favorable characteristics were overshadowed.

MARGARINE:
Truthfully, I expected the margarine cake to be awful. But it wasn’t as bad as I had envisioned. The margarine cake was nearly as moist as the oil cake though it did not have the same light texture. It was also coarser than the oil and butter cakes and possessed more air pockets. The salt present in the margarine made the cake a bit too salty, but overall the cake was decent on most fronts. I would not say this cake was bad, but neither would I say it was great.

I am not willing to give up lovely, creamy butter in my cakes but the results of these tests inspire me to replace some of the butter with oil in the future.  I don’t have to fear that the oil will adversely affect the taste of the cake and the benefit of moistness is highly desirable.

BAKING TEMPERATURES

Have you ever wondered why most cakes are baked at 350ᵒ F?  And why do cookbooks and baking authorities make such a fuss about making sure your oven temperature is accurate?  What is it about that mystical number on the oven’s dial that makes it work so well for baking and what happens if, heaven forbid, your oven temperature is off?  Let’s take a quick look at the effect of oven temperature on the baking process and how you can take control of the outcome of your baked goods with a little thermal know-how.

During baking, a cake batter undergoes a complex process of chemical and physical reactions which transform it from goo into light, fluffy delightfulness.  Each of these actions takes place when the batter reaches a particular temperature and the rate at which they occur is dependent on how hot the oven is.  Here is a snapshot of the activities which convert batter into cake and the order in which they occur:

1. Fats melt
2. Gases expand and form
3. Sugar dissolves
4. Proteins coagulate
5. Starches gelatinize
6. Gasses evaporate
7. Caramelization occurs

If a cake is baked at a relatively low temperature, these steps take place more slowly and evenly throughout the cake with less overlap in processes. The gentle rise in batter temperature allows the external crust of the cake to react in similar fashion to the inside of the cake. Conversely, batter placed in a high temperature oven will have a number of processes going on in rapid succession and in uneven distribution.  In this scenario, the cake crust will undergo all of the steps more quickly than the internal portions of the cake.

I baked a number of cakes from 300ᵒ F to 400ᵒ F to provide a practical example of how oven temperature alterations can modify the end results.  A cake baked at 300ᵒ F is lighter and fluffier than a cake baked at 400ᵒ F.  The cake baked at 300ᵒ F also has a pale even outer crust which remains gummy due to the reduced degree of evaporation at the cake’s surface.  The 400ᵒ F cake has a dark, ledged outer crust with a more dried surface.  The evaporation of water on the surface of the cake enables caramelization processes to occur.  Caramelization can add flavor but if taken too far can lead to a burnt, acrid taste.  The other notable difference in the cakes with various temperatures was in the consistency of the crumb.  The cake baked at 300ᵒ F had a very soft, smooth crumb while the cake baked at 400 F had a slightly more rough-textured mouthfeel.  This is likely due to the speed under which the proteins coagulated.

Cakes baked through the spectrum of temperatures between 300ᵒ F and 400ᵒ F display gradual variants of these two extremes.  Baking at 350ᵒ F is sort of a happy medium between 300ᵒ F and 400ᵒ F and creates a cake that has the best of both worlds.  It has lightness, texture and caramelization induced flavor.

There you have it!  Altering the temperature in which you bake has a significant effect on the outcome of your cake.  By knowing the accuracy of your oven, you can better predict the final result of your cake.  If you’ve ever baked a recipe and wondered what went wrong, give your oven temperature a second look.  Most ovens are calibrated inaccurately, leaving you unaware that you’re baking at a temperature above or below what your recipe specifies.  It is helpful to purchase an oven thermometer to test the temperature and then adjust as needed.

Plus you can exert some control on the height and texture of your cake simply by adjusting the heat dial on your oven up or down a bit.

Happy baking!

Blueberry Cheese Tart

Bahan kulit:
290 gr tepung terigu
170 gr margarin
50 gr gula halus
1 butir telur ayam utuh ukuran besar

Cara:
** Kocok rata margarin dan gula dengan menggunakan senduk kayu
** Masukkan telur dan esen vanilla, aduk rata
** Masukkan tepung sedikit demi sedikit… uli hingga menjadi dough yang lembut
** Tutup dalam plastik wrap dan simpan dalam kulkas 1 malam
** Ambil sedikit adonan dan tekan ke dalam cetakan, tusuk dengan garfu sebelum dipanggang disuhu 170C selama 15 menit
** Kulit ini kita boleh siapkan lebih awal. Simpan dalam wadah kedap udara dan akan tahan lama. Tunggu dingin sebelum kita isi selai dan krimnya

Bahan chesse / krim keju:
250 gr cream cheese
50 gr gula halus
1 butir telur ayam utuh
Sedikit pewarna

Cara:
** Jika di dalam kulkas, keluarkan cream cheese kira kira 30 menit sebelum digunakan
** Kocok cream cheese dan gula hingga lembut berkrim
** Masukkan telur dan esen vanilla, kocok lagi hingga rata
** Ambil sedikit cream cheese lalu beri warna untuk lorek
** Sebelum ditutup krim keju, kita isi kulitnya dengan selai terlebih dulu
** Tutup dengan krim keju, lalu lorek bentuk bunga atau hias sesuai selera
** Panggang sekitar 10 menit atau tes sentuh krimnya sudah ngga lengket lagi di tangan
** Selamat mencoba

SIFTING MAKE A BETTER CAKE

BAKING ASSUMPTION: It is necessary to sift or whisk dry ingredients together.

To sift or not to sift, that is the question.  Most recipes call for either sifting or whisking together your dry ingredients before combining them with the other ingredients.  I wanted to take a look at the necessity of these practices and see what types of differences these methods made, if any.

Let’s take a quick look at how whisking and sifting affect dry ingredients.  The image above illustrates the how whisking and sifting affect the texture of the flour.  When flour is whisked, wires separate flour particles an aerate mixture.  Similarly, when flour is sifted the grain particles are separated but to a much finer degree due to the close proximity of the wires in the mesh.  As the flour falls from the sieve it becomes aerated.  Whisked flour is slightly more smooth and uniform than flour that was unmixed and poured directly onto the board, but the texture of the sifted flour is incredibly fine and fluffy.

An additional reason for whisking or sifting flour is to incorporate and distribute dry ingredients such as salt and leavening agents throughout the flour.  To illustrate the effectiveness of either method, I added cocoa powder to the flour and left them unmixed, whisked them together, or sifted them together.  As you can see, whisking is the most effective way to distribute ingredients.  The cocoa is evenly and uniformly spread through the flour after approximately 20 strokes of the whisk.  While sifting improves distribution of dry ingredients, the cocoa fell in almost alternating layers and predominately to one side of the sifted heap.

Now let’s look at what this means in an actual cake.  I have to admit that I don’t usually whisk or sift my dry ingredients together.  I generally sprinkle them into the mixer bowl which contains butter, sugar and eggs.  I have assumed that a good period of mixing following the addition of dry ingredients is enough to evenly distribute them throughout the batter.  It was time to put my assumption to the test.

For this comparison, I creamed the butter and sugar, added the eggs, flavoring and liquid and then divided it into thirds.  To the thirds I added unmixed dry ingredients, whisked dry ingredients or sifted dry ingredients and mixed them each for 1 minute on medium speed.  The cakes were then baked at the same time.

What I found was that cakes were surprisingly similar.  The cakes that were unmixed and whisked were difficult to differentiate.  The most marked difference between the two was the top crust of the cake.  The unmixed dry ingredient cake had a mottled upper crust while the whisked cake had a smooth, uniform top.  They both had a similar texture, lightness and mouthfeel.

The sifted cake on the other hand was a tad bit finer in texture, but once again the difference was negligible.  The thing that surprised me the most was that the sifted cake was a little drier than the whisked or unmixed cakes.  It would seem that by separating all of the flour clumps, more surface area of the starch was exposed absorbing more fat and liquid making the cake seem a bit more cottony.

It appears that the separation of particles, exemplified by sifting, has more effect on the cake than the distribution of dry ingredients, on which whisking proves the superior method.

So which technique is the best for your cake?  That depends on your preferences.  If a very fine cake texture is your goal than it may be beneficial to sift.  If moisture is more important to you, you may want to skip the sifting process or add fat and liquids to compensate.  If you minimally mix your cakes after the addition of dry ingredients, it would be advisable to whisk your dry ingredients together before adding them to your wet ingredients.  But if you mix your batter for a minute or more after the dry ingredients are added, whisking is probably not critical.  That’s the beauty of cake; you get to choose!

I hope this has informed the way you add your dry ingredients.

Happy baking!

OVERMIX A CAKE

To test my assumptions I mixed up a standard cake batter, either mixing just until blended (finishing by hand), for 5 minutes, or for a full 15 minutes before baking. When the cakes emerged from the oven, I was very surprised by the results and I think you will be too!

Let’s start with a brief overview of how toughening of cakes works. All cakes exist with a balance of structure makers and structure weakeners.

Structure molecules primarily include: egg proteins, dairy proteins, gluten, and starches.

Weakening molecules include: fats, sugars, liquids, acids and fiber.

If your recipe is out of balance and you have too many structural components and not enough weakeners, you make have a beautiful looking cake that is tall and fluffy, but it will likely be tough, chewy and unpalatable. Conversely, an unbalanced recipe that is heavy on weakeners may taste great but can be short in height and fall apart easily when stacked or cut. Bakers are constantly tweaking recipes to find the perfect balance of ingredients that will result in the best texture and taste great at the same time.

Some of the structural elements in a cake batter are affected by how well and how long you mix. The proteins that form gluten, for example, are activated my mixing in the presence of water. If you mix a batter that contains flour and water for a long time with little fat or sugar you will end up with long strands of gluten and a tough, chewy baked good.

Fat and sugar in the cake batter counteract the formation of the gluten strands and in theory should minimize the gluten-forming effects of a long mix time. What surprised me in my experiement was the fact that mixing actually destabilized or weakened the protein network of the cake. The least mixed cake was the strongest structurally and the 15 minute mixed cake was so fragile and tender that I could barely get it out of the pan without breakage.

There are a number of factors that seem to be at play into this structure reduction process.

1. The longer you mix the more fat distribution/protein coating occurs and consequently more protein weakening.

2. The longer mix time results in greater sugar dispersal and dissolving. The sugar reacts with proteins in the batter reducing their structural capabilities and hinders starch-mediated structural components as well. The thoroughly dissolved sugar in the long mixed cake also seems to effect browning processes, as seen in this top down view of the cakes.

3. An extended mixing will allow for more reaction of leavening agents, reducing the expansion of air pockets, leading to a “shorter” cake.

So, if you are baking a fat and sugar-rich cake the longer you mix the denser and weaker your cake structure will be, contradictory to the popular belief that it will lead to toughening of the cake. I found that the 5 minute mix time resulted in a cake with a nice texture and moderately tender crumb. Anywhere between 2 and 6 minutes should suffice. The time necessary for mixing will vary with recipe but this should help give you with a ball park idea of mixing time.

I hope this information helps as you go forward experimenting with mix times in all of your batter-blending adventures.

Happy baking!

MIXING UP THE PERFECT CAKE

Classic cake making methods suggest that the first step in making a butter cake involves creaming together butter and sugar.  Traditionally this was done with a wooden spoon and brute strength and required the baker to endure arduous sessions of beating.  With today’s electric mixers, I wanted take a look at how much mixing was enough to achieve sufficient creaming and what would happen if you creamed too far.

I started with a classic vanilla cake recipe and mixed the butter and sugar for either 1 minute on low, 3 minutes on medium-high or 6 minutes on medium-high.  The differences in the butter-sugar combo were stark.

The low-mixed combo was still very yellow in color and the sugar granules were easily detectable in this just-combined mixture.

The butter mixture that was mixed for 3 minutes on medium-high was much lighter in color, less dense and the sugar granules appeared smaller or less noticeable.

The combination mixed for 6 minutes on medium-high was a bit denser than the 3 minute mixing and the mixture was softer and smoother than the others.

To examine why these differences occur let’s take a look at what happens in the creaming process.

1. Butter and sugar are combined which aids in the distribution of these two ingredients.
2. Air is driven into the butter by the beaters and the jagged shape of the sugar crystals helps to hold small air pockets as they are forced into the butter.
3. As air is incorporated into the butter-sugar combo the light diffracting properties are altered and the mixture appears lighter in color.
4. Friction from the mixing causes the butter to soften.
5. Sugar crystals begin to dissolve in the liquid in the butter making them seem less pronounced.

Despite marked differences in the appearance of the creamed butter-sugar combination, the differences in the baked cakes were more difficult spot.  When the three cakes were lined up side by side, it was not easy to detect alterations in structure or texture.  All three cakes appeared light and fluffy with an open crumb.  Only mouthfeel gave away their subtle differences.

The one-minute cake had a slightly more coarse texture than the other two cakes and baked slightly domed.

The three-minute cake had a softer, tenderer texture than the one-minute cake and baked perfectly flat.

The six-minute cake was slightly coarser and just a bit cottony when compared to the three minute cake.

So, it appears that you can under or over cream you butter and sugar if you are not careful.  If you under mix, the sugar granules stay coarse and not enough fine air particles are incorporated into the cake batter to make it light and fluffy.  When the sugar and butter are properly creamed the mixture becomes lighter and less dense. These fine air particles expand and gently leaven the cake.  The “softened” sugar also distributes better throughout the batter for a more tender cake.  When the butter and sugar are over mixed the butter becomes excessively soft and the less capable of holding air pockets.  The sugar also starts to dissolve making the mixture more liquid and less able to hold onto fine air cells.  The resultant cake becomes coarser as the larger and less numerous air pockets converge.

There you have it!  Our grandmothers may have had to beat their butter and sugar for upwards of 30 minutes but a mere 3 minutes in a modern day mixer is all you need for a lovely cake!

Happy baking!

Condensed Milk Cotton Cheesecake

Condensed Milk Cotton Cheesecake Recipe

This recipe yields a 6" cake

ALL ingredients to be of room temperature

3 eggs, separated (55 - 60g type)

1 egg

50g plain flour

50g condensed milk (sweetened)

100g cream cheese

35ml oil (I used canola)

45g caster sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder (optional)

Method

Sift the flour.

In a heat proof bowl, measure the cream cheese.

Grease the base of the 6" baking tin and line with baking paper. Lightly grease the sides of the baking tin.

Double boil the cream cheese till it's nice and smooth. Boil more water and keep it boiling while the batter is being prepared. The boiling water here can be used to do the water bath for the cake.

Measure the oil

Separate 3 eggs, add 1 egg (whole) to the 3 yolks. Place the whites in the mixing bowl, ensuring that it is dry and clean.

To the yolks, add the condensed milk. Whisk to mix well.

Once the cream cheese has come to a smooth stage, set aside to cool down.

Heat up the oil.

Pour the hot oil into the dough.

Mix well and set aside.

Add the egg mixture to the cream cheese that has been cooled. Whisk and mix well.

Add the dough mixture, whisk and mix well.

Set the mixture aside. 

Whisk the egg whites till it's frothy. Add the lemon juice. 

Add the sugar and allow the mixture to come to stiff peaks. I usually do it all at once though many recipes call for it to be added gradually.

Whisking and ready to be folded! (:

Whisk to stiff peaks.

Use one heapful of meringue and fold it into the mixture. It's okay to be vigorous here. 

Fold it till there are no white streaks.

Add one more heapful of it and fold gently this time round.

Light and fluffy!

Add in all the remaining meringue and fold well.

Light and fluffy!

Prepare a larger tin (I used an 8" tin) and fill it 1/2 full with the boiling water from the double boiling. Pour the batter into the cake tin, leaving a small amount for the decorating (if you want to).. Drop the baking tin from a height of 10cm a couple of times to release trapped air. 

If you wish to decorate the cake, add the cocoa powder into the small amount of batter set aside and fold in. THIS STEP MUST BE DONE WITH LIGHTNING SPEED, lest the batter deflates. Place cocoa batter into piping bag and pipe desired design. 

Place cake tin into water bath and send it into a preheated oven of 150 degree Celsius, top and bottom heat. 

Bake for 40 minutes before lowering temperature to 130 degree Celsius and bake for another 75 minutes. 

Place it in the middle rack (:

Once the cake is cooked, remove from oven. 

Dry the base of the baking tin and drop the cake from a height of 10cm twice to prevent shrinking. Invert cake on a cooling rack and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

 Remove cake tin (nudge it gently if it doesn't 'fall') and invert cake right side up to allow it to cool completely.

(:

I could have tapped the tin a little more (:

But it's still fluffy!

Enjoy the lovely cake! 

http://www.thebakingbiatch.com/2015/09/condensed-milk-cotton-cheesecake.html