Recipe and Health Articles

Baking a cake at home

The sensation of a soft creamy cake melting in your mouth is one of the sweetest pleasures of life, If only baking a cake was as simple as eating one. It really is!!!! All you need is passion for food, basic knowledge of baking, a recipe and an imagination to try out variations. Although Cake making has come into our kitchen since ages, very little is known of its ingredients and right processes.

To begin with lets understand what a cake is?

Cake is a homogeneous mixture of ingredients like flour, butter, egg and sugar along with ingredients like baking powder, cocoa powder, fruits and nuts for flavor and texture. Cakes are made in a variety of shapes and forms with variation of recipes and methods . The most common type of cakes, use baking as a raising agent while some cakes rely on the air trapped in beaten whites in their mixtures. Further classification of cakes are Creaming method, Whipping method, Blending method, All-in-one, and many more:

The objectives of mixing the cake batter are :

1. Introduction of air.
2. Proper distribution of the air.
3. Breaking down the large air cells into finer cells to get good grain.


The Cake Making Process

Following is the basic classification of ingredients in terms of their purpose and functions during cake making;

1. Tougheners : To provide structure or bind the cake ; flour, milk solids, egg whites.
2. Tenderizers : To provide shortness and softness in the cake. They are sugar, shortening, egg yolks, chocolate and other fat containing ingredients.
3. Moisteners : To provide moisture and maintain quality, these are liquids such as milk, water, eggs and syrups.
4. Driers : To absorb and retain moisture and also provide body; flour, milk solids and starches.
5. Flavors : To provide natural flavors ; cocoa, chocolate, butter, eggs, etc.

A balance of tougheners, tenderizers, driers, moisteners results in a tender & well formed cake.

Consider a basic cake with 200 gms of flour; 200 gms of butter/margarine; 200 gms of sugar; and 200 gms of egg (4 nos).
Start the cake by creaming the butter and sugar till its light and fluffy, so as to aerate the batter and to make the cake soft.
Whip the eggs and add it in small portions to the batter by continuously creaming so that no curdling takes place. If the batter curdles, add a little flour and continue creaming. Add the remaining flour at the end, to get the structure of the cake.
Entire mixing has to be done lightly to avoid a `hard` cake. Pour the batter into a greased baking tray and tap twice to let out air bubbles. The ideal baking time in an oven (OTG) is 30-35 min for an 8 inch cake and 10- 15 min for muffins at a temperature of 160 degree Celsius.

SOME HANDY TIPS FOR EASY PROBLEM SOLVING

1. Measure ingredients accurately and make sure they are at room temperature.
2. Add vanilla essence while whipping the eggs to mask the smell.
3. Adding a pinch of salt while beating the eggs will give a stiffer froth.
4. The more lighter and fluffier the batter is, the better is the rise.
5. Dark crust means excess sugar or high oven temperature.
6. Thick crust indicates high temperature in the oven.
7. Fruits sink to the bottom - Coat the fruits with flour and reduce also water quantity.
8. Salt enhances the flavor of all the ingredients used.

Viola!!! Now you can make a scrumptious cake and eat it too. Happy Baking!!!!