Composed, edited, photographed, photochopped and blearily peered at by Cake Sister
As many readers of Chomple.com are likely aware, I am Cake Sister, actual sister of Actual Girlfriend, and a former professional baker turned architect (Please note that I'm not actually a licensed architect and cannot legally call myself one, so to be technical I work in the field of architecture at an architecture firm doing architecture stuff. Oh and I'm a LEED AP, too. Woot! But I digress...).
I really enjoy baking. I enjoy it more than cooking, which I have been told I'm not too shabby at either. If I had to choose only one, It would be baking. I find it easy and fun.
I understand, however, that baking is not such an easy thing for many folks, so I thought I'd share some of the tips and tricks of making baking easier that I've learned over the years so your next cake making adventure might be more successful.
First, let me begin by telling you that I do not make all my cakes from scratch. Yes, it's true: I do occasionally use a box cake mix. And for good reason too: they take all the guesswork out of the "right" recipe for some cake.
I do make many cakes from scratch but I have to use The Scientific Method to figure out which recipes work best with what fillings, what the best frosting is, how can I change the recipe to make it my own, etc. For instance, there was a cake tasting with four variations of a Mimosa Cake. The exercise was arduous, required note-taking, trial and error, success and failure, and ultimately taste-testers to tell me whether or not the cakes are even worth the effort. What a chore!
There is an easier way: a box cake.
Making a box cake is fairly simplistic: mix, water, oil, eggs, oven. However, it is not exactly "easy" per se. There are some tricky steps that if not executed correctly can result in a disasterously yucky cake.
Today I will explain how to make a red velvet cake (courtesy of Duncan Hines) with from-scratch cream cheese frosting.
Tip 1: Always select a cake mix that mentions it is "super moist" or that it has pudding in the mix. This will lessen the likelihood of a dry cake.
To begin, clean and prepare your work area, and wash your hands. Yes, really, I have to say this because some folks just don't realize that a trashed work area doesn't allow you to concentrate on your cake making efforts. Also, who wants the threat of day-old spaghetti looming over an open bowl of frosting to ruin the experience.
Next prepare your mise en place (pronounced meez on plahs), which is a fancy French term meaning "put in place". This means get out all your ingredients and measure them out, setting them aside for incorporation later. Also, get together whatever tools or utensils you might need: mixer, rubber spatula, etc. This crutial step assures that you will not miss an ingredient and that you won't delay some time sensitive step by being ill-prepared.
Now generously grease (with shortening, the plain white stuff) the bottoms only of two 8-inch, straight side aluminum pans. Why just the bottoms you ask? Well because if the sides are greased then the cake cannot use them to cling to and crawl up for a more even rising during baking. If you grease the sides you tend to get high crowned cakes with low sides. (By the way, these are professional-grade pans and make the final cake assembly much easier as the sides will all line up with one another. If you want to know whether or not your pans have straight sides, try nesting them together. If they do not fit inside each other, then they are straight sides. If you want to find some, check out Michael's wedding/cake section, Amazon.com, or, if you're in Sacramento, hit Cake Castle for some awesome goods!)
Oh, and preheat your oven per the box mix directions.
Tip 2: Clean, prepare, pre-grease, preheat.
Now how about some pictures already!
So let's get to making a cake!
Tip 3: Put your wet ingredients into the bowl first.This reduces the chances of dry mix clumped at the bottom of the bowl and not getting incorporated properly.
Tip 4: Crack your eggs into a separate clear container to remove any shell bits and/or check for bad eggs.
Add in the dry cake mix and beat on low speed for about 30 seconds to get everything moistened. If you turn on the mixer too high you will be showered lovingly by cake dust and likely be pretty miffed about it, too.
After the bowl is looking all kinds of liquid, turn up the mixer to medium for about 2 minutes. You can optionally stop the mixer, scrape the bowl, and then go for the 2 minute medium. By putting in the wet ingredients first you kind of negate the need to do so, but it is good practice to scrape, especially you who are beginners.
Here's an action shot for you mixin' lovin' folks!
When it's all mixed, time to fill the prepared pans.
Tip 5: Use a scale or measuring cups to equally distribute batter into pans. "Eyeballing" will get you uneven layers every time.
Now move your filled pans to your preheated oven, placing them on a single center rack spaced about 2 inches apart, one on the left and one on the right.
Now some basic math:
- Close the door and look at the cake box
- Find the size of the cake you're making and see what it says for time
- subtract 5 minutes
- divide the remaining time in half
- set a timer for that amount of time
- when the timer goes off, carefully swap the cakes in the oven so that if the right side of the right one was by the oven wall it should now be on the left and that same side should be in the middle. This allows for even baking, even in the most persnickety ovens.
- set a time for the same amount of time you did earlier. (1/2 [full time less 5 minutes])
Tip 6: Always subtract 5 minutes off the time given on the box (actually this is a good rule for any cake recipe) to start checking for doneness.
Prepare your area for cake removal from the oven:
Wait. A tea towel. Why? I get the oven mitts (which are hella - hey I'm from norcal, I can say it - cute and I got them at Crate & Barrel for my birthday last year. Thanks Actual!) and the cake testing equipment, and even the cooling rack. But a towel?
To which I answer: Patience my young Padawan. You will learn.
*Ding*, or in my house my timer sounds like Mario collecting coins in Super Mario Brothers. Anyway, time to check the cakes. Employ the skewers!!!
Open oven, pull out rack o' pans. Poke the centers and check. The skewers should not be covered with wet batter, neither should they be dry. A clean skewer means the cake is overdone. That is the myth of the box cake directions: remove when cake tester comes out clean. You see any cake can be good or bad based on how it is baked. A little too done and you might as well use it to mop of spills on the floor as it'll be like eating a dry sponge. Cooked just right and you have a little bit of nirvana in your mouth later. um.. that didn't come out sounding quite right, but if you've had really good cake you know what I mean.
So this is what your skewers should look like: not wet but a good bit of moist crumb clinging to them. Use a fresh skewer for each cake. Don't want a mis-read.
Now on to the tea towel.
See, you take out this cake and it's got this crown on it. Now you could just cut it off to make the layer flat for frosting later so you don't have a cake that looks like a frosted stack of droopy laundry, or, alternately, you could smoosh it down to preserve the mass of the cake, make the crumb a little denser and make the top flat.
Tip 7: Behold, the tea towel: crown smoosher extraordinaire!
Now let the cakes cool in their pans for about 10 minutes to set, then run a slim, straight knife around the sides and invert them out onto the cooling rack to finish cooling.
Tip 8: Put your fully-cooled cakes into the freezer for about 45 minutes to get the crumb a little more set (you can wrap them first, but keep them flat and level regardless). Makes them easier to cut!
Let's make some frosting!
Tip 9: Use only unsalted butter in a recipe so you can control the amount of salt instead of the butter producer.
Here is my simple cream cheese recipe:
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 4 oz. unsalted butter
- 2 tsp. real vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 lbs. confectioners (powdered) sugar - pure cane is best
- With a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and vanilla together until light and whipped. Scrape down bowl.
- Add unsalted butter and beat again until all lumps are gone. Scrape down the bowl.
- Add about half of the sifted powdered sugar and, with the mixer on low, incorporate into the cream cheese/butter mixture.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add the rest of the sugar.
- When it's all added and mostly mixed in, turn the mixer to medium high for 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl and beat until nice and fluffy.
Let's get to assembly, filling and frosting then:
Allow me to list the tools of the trade from left to right: frosting bags (cloth and disposable plastic) with tips sitting on a cake table (think footed lazy susan), wire cake layer cutter, cake side decorating scraper, wide frosting tip, 10" dinner plate with small offset spatula, flat spreader, large offset spatula, large serrated bread knife. In back: bowl o' frosting goodness with a scoopula in it.
It's time to "torte" the layers. This is just a fancy term for cutting the layers horizontally into even more layers. In this case, I baked two layers and will cut each into two,thus yielding four layers total. This is not a necessary step but does make a really nice cake impression during serving. If you think this is a little too advanced, skip ahead, we'll catch up.
I used two different techniques to split the layers: wire and serrated knife. By the way, I got the wire splitter from IKEA. It came in a kit I highly recommend to anyone who wants an inexpensive and useful beginning decorating kit. It came with the wire cutter, two decorating bags, 4-5 decorting tips with a coupler, and the cake side decorating scraper. It was something ike $5. Seriously. If I got the same stuff in Wilton brand, it'd cost more like $40.
The wire layer splitter is easiest and almost guarantees a perfect cut. Just adjust the wire to the desired layer thickness and gently move it through the cake, sometime employing a sawing technique.
The knife requires the ability to spin the cake for maximum ease and best results. Place the layer on the cake stand, lay the knife horizontally (paralell to the countertop) at the midpoint of the side and gently saw back and forth, keeping the knife level. Simultaneously spin the stand slowly by laying your hand palm down on top of the layer to keep it pinned. You'll only have to saw halfway though since you'll be spinning it and you'll meet the original cut at that point.
Layer split and starting to fill:
Your mission now is to fill the cake and to crumbcoat. A crumbcoat is a thin layer of frosting covering the entire cake that traps the crumbs so they don't show up in your final frost. Yes, you frost your cake twice, but it will be beautiful and, frankly, the crumbcoat is a quicky job. Throw it in the fridge for 30 minutes, clean up your area and get ready for a little decorating while you wait.
The final product for presentation:
Tip 10: Refrigerate your cake 8-hours or overnight. This allows the layers' crispy exterior to rehydrate back into proper soft and moist cake consistency.
Tip 11: Bring your cake to room temperature before serving. This takes 1-2 hours but improves the flavor impact greatly.
Note: although the cake is easier to cut cold, it tastes better at room temperature. If you don't have to worry about a cutting ceremony, you can cut the pieces early and let them come to room temperature before serving. To keep them from drying out, cover with plastic cling film.
Tip 12: Keep your cake looking pretty during cutting. Use hot water to heat the knife blade and a towel to wipe off the crumbs and frosting stuck to it. Beautiful pieces = happy tasters!
And now, the money shot:
Four layers of red velvety goodness and sweet cream cheese delight!
Hope you enjoyed this lesson on box cake baking. Remember to be clean, be prepared and don't overbake!
