Baking and Pastry (Diploma)- Week 7

Time Plan

Time Activity
9:00 -9:30 Theory
9:35-10:20 Make Flourless Chocolate Cake
(allow to cool)
10:25 – 11:00 Make Chocolate Ganache and
Simple Syrup(chilling down
both)
11:05-11:55 Make buttercream (american)
and fruit filling for Sponge Cake
12:00-1:00 BREAK
1:05 – 2:45 Put together both Cakes
*Simple Syrup
*layer
*Crumb Coat
*final Layer buttercream
*Decorate
2:50- 3:20 BREAKDOWN

Vanilla Cake

Classic Vanilla Cake comprises of Flour, eggs, fat (usually butter), sugar, salt, leavening agent, a form of
liquid (usually milk) and vanilla flavoring. When making a sponge based cake, the creaming method is an
important step. This is because creaming sugar and fat, creates air that allows for leavening, resulting a
light and fluffy crumb.

Method

1) Creaming Fat and Sugar

Classic Sponge Cakes begin by Creaming fat with sugar. This can be done with, butter , margarine or even
with a combination of oil with either. This is done by beating the fat on low speed, till a soft and has a
slightly whipped appearance. You then gradually add in your sugar while continuing to beat, till light and
increased in volume.

- Creaming Fat and Sugar is needed as a leavening agent, this is what gives the cake its
light and fluffy crumb.
*Sugar crystals have rough and jagged surfaces that ‘dig’ into the butter when beaten together,
creating tiny pockets of air that are trapped in fat. The smaller the crystals, the larger quantity of
small air pockets there are, resulting in a very light and fluffy textured cake (thus castor sugar it
great for this method).
The air in the pockets expand when they are heated, as steam from the wet ingredients of the
batter is released and carbon dioxide from the chemical leaveners are released.
 - Chemicals Leaveners do not create more air bubbles, they enlarge the air bubbles that
are already present. If creaming isn’t done properly, your cake will be dense, can rise on
only one side, rise too much in the oven then collapse.
- Different types of fats are better for holding air bubbles than others. Shortening and lard
create and hold air bubbles the best, but butter is good also and has the best flavour.
Margarine does not hold air as effectively, whilst vegetable oil doesn’t at all.

*If you start beating your fat at a higher speed too soon, the air bubbles might break. (Resulting in a
heavy dense cake) Start the mixer on low then gradually increase the speed.

Note- Always use room temperature butter. If the butter is too cold, the sugar won’t be strong enough to
‘dig’ the pockets of air. If it is too warm, the sugar will slosh straight the rough butter without creating
any pockets. The butter should be soft enough for you to bend a stick of it, but not so soft that you can
poke your finger easily through it

2) Adding Eggs and Vanilla

Eggs would be the emulsifying agent in your cake, they will seal the air pockets created and prevent
them from collapsing when the butter melts in the oven. When adding your eggs and flavouring, add
them in till just combined; as overmixing will cause your cake mixture to separate, giving it a shiny crust.

Note – when adding your eggs to the fat and sugar, crack your eggs in a separate bowl. This helps avoid
any eggshells or bad eggs, being incorporated into your mixture. You can also beat your eggs before
adding them in, as this helps to slowly incorporate the liquid into your fat mixture, which can aid in
avoiding the breaking of your emulsion.

3) Folding in wet and dry ingredients

When adding in your milk and flour, alternate between the two. Begin by adding in 1/3 of your dry
ingredients, then ½ of your milk, 1/3 of your flour then the last ½ of your milk, and finally the last 1/3
of your dry ingredients. This is fone because when there's a high amount of butter or other fat in the
batter, it's hard to get the liquid totally mixed in; the alternating technique helps reduce the
percentage of fat overall (by adding some flour first). It also facilitates the formation of gluten, which
binds the batter together.

Note- Gently fold in dry and wet ingredients as a means of inhibiting too much glluten formation.
Overmixing your cake will result in an extremely tight crumb and tunneling.

Cakes can be made with Ap Flour /Cake Flour as their gluten content isn’t strong like bread flour or 00
Flour, resulting in a soft crumb.

You can make Cake flour by Whisking together ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (105g) all-purpose flour and 2
tablespoons (14g) cornstarch. Use in place of cake flour in a recipe, substituting by equal weight or
volume.
Simple Syrup 1 ¼ cup sugar to 2 cups water. Simple Syrup can be made 1 :1 or sugar can be reduced
based on preference of sweetness. This keeps your cake moist.

Flourless Chocolate Cake (Torta Caprese)

Torta caprese is a flourless Italian cake made with chocolate and either almonds or hazelnuts. Named for
the island of Capri from which it originates. It can be flavoured with almond or orange extract. After
baking, the cake has a moist interior with a thin, hard shell—typically dusted with powdered sugar. It is
sometimes made with a small amount of Strega or other liqueur.

Meringue- be sure to beat your meringue till just below stiff peaks.

This cake doesn’t contain any leavening agents, so gently fold in dry ingredients to avoid deflating your
mixture. The meringue and creamed butter will provide as the leavening agent for this cake.

Process –

1) Cream butter and brown sugar together till light and pale. Beating in the egg yolks one at a time.
2) Stir in cooled melted chocolate and ground almonds till well combined
3) Whip egg whites and sugar together until medium peaks, just under stiff peaks.
4) Fold into chocolate batter using a folding method. As soon as all the meringue is incorporated
stop folding (avoid deflating mixture) meringue is fully incorporated when you see no more
streaks of white.
5) Bake for an average of 50-55 mins, should be springy on the top.