Cake baking question

[housewolf]

After a long dry spell of little baking, I've been inspired to bake a cake several times recently. I'm using recipes that I've used before, and they just aren't turing out too well.

So I wanted to see if anyone here has some suggestions.

The first thing to note is that moved several months ago and I learned the hard way that the oven in this house is kinda flakey. I have an oven thermometer in it and it indicates registers about 25 degrees lower than the oven's temperature display reads, so I set the oven 25 degrees higher to compensate. (But how do I know if my oven thermometer is accurate???)

The cakes (a genoise, a yellow butter cake & a chocolate butter cake) come out kinda crumbly and a bit coarse. The flavor is great, the color is good, but the texture isn't quite what I want. I keep thinking the problem is the oven... or maybe I've just lost my touch!

Any ideas?

[grasswire]

1. flour?

Are you using an old bag of flour? Sifting it? Anything different from before?

[housewolf]

3. Flour

I was using a box of cake flour (might have been Swan's Down, not sure now) that I'd purchased about 4 months ago and yes, I sifted it.

I weighed everything by grams rather than using volume.

I'm using my sister's 6-qt KA instead of my own similar machine. I used a local brand of unsalted butter. I'm new to this area so in that sense, EVERYTHING is different from before - I'm in Portland, OR where it's unbelievably damp- maybe the hummidity is a factor somehow???

[NMDemDist2]

5. the humidity was my first thought

maybe cut back the liquid by a teaspoon or two?

[housewolf]

9. Humidity/flour

Think I'll get some fresh flour and butter and try again. It looks like we have a few dry days coming up so this might be a good time to experiment.

It's so different here from Phoenix - almost the exact opposite. We've had overcast and rainy days almost EVERY SINGLE day since mid-September! But yesterday was dry and so far today is dry and the 10-day forecast looks a little brighter.

How are you enjoying life in New Mexico?

[grasswire]

6. I'm in Portland

Here's a suggestion. Call the food line at the Oregonian or send them an email at food day. They love to solve problems like this. Tell them you've moved from wherever, and that your cakes are not turning out here.

Question: did you weigh ingredients in your previous location too? Or use volume?

[housewolf]

10. What a great idea!

Thanks for the suggestion. I enjoy reading The Oregonian's weekly food pages every week so I'll take a look at sending it in to them. They might have some good suggestions.

I've been weighing ingredients for about 10 years now, don't know how I ever got along without a good kitchen scale before. What I did do differentlly this time, though, was to weigh by grams rather than by ounces. I thought grams would be more accurate and give a better, more consistent result but ???? :shrug:

Thanks for your suggestion.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

2. My oven actually gets to the correct temp, but it takes

way longer. The light goes out & it buzzes like it's gotten to the right temp, but it actually takes another 10 minutes or so. Is your oven doing the same? Because if you set your oven 25 degrees higher to compensate & the oven is still heating up it would throw it off ,particularly something as fussy as a genoise (that I've never had any luck making, btw).

[housewolf]

4. Oven

Yeah, this oven takes a VERY long time to heat up - so I had it on for at least an hour before the cake went in. I had set the oven to 375 and my oven thermometer registered 350, which is what the recipes called for.

Genoise is really hard, isn't it???? I'd never made one before and it took me 4 tries (and lots of research) before I ended up with something kinda usable.

Grrrrr.... I never had trouble with cakes before!

[displacedtexan]

7. Some ideas

1. Test your oven with a 99 cent cake mix (cheaper than practicing with more expensive
butter and cake flour)

2. Have you noticed any difference in the eggs since you moved? You might need to buy
them at CostCo (or Heaven forbid, Wal-Mart, if that's the only big box store with regional,
not local, products available.

3. Use the "baker's thermometer": Watch for the cake edges to start browning and separating (even a
tiny bit) from the sides of the pan, and take the cake out of the oven when there's just a bit
of a wiggle in the center (the cake will continue to bake after you take it out, remember)

As for génoise...

It's designed to be spritzed or soaked for most uses. We learned to use a syringe in pastry school.

Your ingredients should be warm (yes, all of them)

Clarified butter (beurre noisette) does make a difference

You have to beat the butter, sugar, and eggs for 5 minutes. (No skirting this step)

One last thing:

Replacing some of the flour with cornstarch (a European technique) tightens the grain
and holds the moisture supplied by the eggs and sugar. Although using part cake flour
produces the best texture, other flours will work, even flours that are all starch such as
potato flour (although the higher the starch content, the lower the génoise).

Good luck!

[housewolf]

11. Thanks for your ideas!

Love the idea of testing the oven with a box mix, I can do that easily.

I'm using extra-large eggs from Trader Joe's; I used to use extra-large eggs from Smart & Final or Trader Joe's. My recipes include quantities by volume, weight in ounces and weight in grams, and I like to measure by weight. I haven't really noticed any difference in the eggs - is there someothing in particular I should look for?

I'll keep your "baker's thermometer" tips in mind - I do seem to have an issue with over-baking things at times, so this is quite helpful.

Genoise - one of my problems has to do with folding in the egg whites - it's just something that I'm not that good at! I don't know if I try to fold them in too quickly, or if I just get frustrated that it seems to take longer than I think it should or if I do it wrong or if there's some technique that that I'm missing or just what... or if it's really just lack of experience because I try to avoid the process as much as possible!

Thanks for the tip about corn starch - I'll give that a try too.

Many thanks for your helpful tips and suggestions!

Where did you go to pastry school? Do you work as a pastry chef?

[displacedtexan]

13. L'Academie de Cuisine (The White House Pastry Chefs Laura fired)

I work on Capitol Hill as a personal pastry chef for a foundation,
a law firm, and a man I like to call Congressman Cracker (I signed
a non-disclosure agreement). his wife takes credit for my desserts.

All of my recipes are scalable (ounces and/or grams).

Each egg should weight 2 ounces (50 grams --actually, 56.69904625 grams-- but who's that precise?)
out of the shell.

Folding just takes practice, but it's easier if you use a really
big bowl and a big whisk or one of those wooden spatulas with holes in it.
Start in the center and get up under the batter, then flip batter over to the outside
edge. Repeat, going clockwise (or anti-clockwise) around the bowl until blended.

[Warpy]

8. Pastry flour

makes the best cakes. I've learned to make them with King Arthur bread flour, but I whip all the liquids first and add the flour at the end and barely mix it in.

Anybody who makes scratch cakes is already doing something right. You just can't get the same flavor from bakery cakes. They all use too many shortcuts and too much junk like trans fat shortenings.

Since you've obviously mastered the flavor and baking time/temperature thingies, I suggest you get some pastry flour and try a cake with it to see if that's been your problem.

The only other thing I could suggest is using larger eggs or adding moisture with applesauce.

[housewolf]

12. Thanks Warpy!!!!

Boy, you know... I will barely buy cake from commercial bakeries anymore - expecially supermarket bakeries. It seems no matter how good it looks, I'm ALWAYS disapppointed. The cakes don't have much flavor and that icing... eeeeewwwwww!

I'll try some pastry flour and see how that works. About 10 years ago I had some pastry flour from Rocky Mountain Milling outside of Denver - and I gotta say, I loved that stuff! It had the greatest flavor - also loved their all-purpose and bread flour. Don't think they make it anymore though, and I don't need big 50 lb bags anymore anyway. I'll have to settle for the local New Seasons or somewhere.

Thanks for your ideas, appreciate your expertise.



:hi: