I'll go ahead and cheat the details below by saying: WE FOUND TWO WINNERS! First was recipe 1 (I will call it white wedding cake) and the second was recipe 2 from Bakerella (Moist Yellow Cake). I paired it with the buttercreme icing I made on Monday night and what a delicious treat!
Here is what I'll be working on this week:
1) perfect chocolate cake recipe
2) designing the bakery's signature royal icing pieces and colors
3) trademarking my future bakery's name
4) we'll see; any plans past three can be hard to keep during a long work week :)
Details from Night 3 - quest for the perfect white cake:
Recipe 1 from: Can You Stay For Dinner (The Very Best White Cake).
These little cakes have an almost perfect white color. They taste light, fluffy and delicious. The only odd thing about them is that they don't separate from their cupcake wrapper very easily...odd? The recipe was for 12 cupcakes but this one made 60 mini cupcakes.
Recipe 2 from: Bakerella (Moist Yellow Cake).
Form the start, I knew I would like this recipe because you whip the butter and sugar for 7 minutes, like a frosting! The batter is yummy (and zero calories, right?). Since this recipe makes enough for three 8" layer cakes, I made two trays of mini cupcakes and two 8" layer cakes. Now, I'm just waiting for the minis to come out of the oven.The buzzer just went off and they look perfect and smell delightful.
Recipe 3: I got this one from my dear friend Emily. There isn't a link to this one, I'll post it at the bottom of the blog. Unfortunately, my food processor is broken, and I did not make superfine sugar. Instead, I added confectioners sugar which made the cake very unsweet. The texture was good though, as was the coloring.
Recipe 4 from: Sweetapolita (an Old Fashioned White Cake). I tried one of hers the other night and they weren't what I was looking for (not enough flavor). I was anxious to see how this one turned out but unfortunately, it was not very good either. The texture was a little too thick as well.
The more I bake, the more I learn about baking (yes, a novel concept but in the south they say: edjecadud LOL). For example, here are my lessons from tonight:
- I am on a quest to find the perfect baking time for mini cupcakes. As of Night 3, that appears to be about 8 minutes and 5 seconds.
- I learned from Bakerella, that you should drop the cake pan of batter to get the air bubbles out (about three inches in height).
- To make great egg whites, they should be as close to room temperature as possible. In fact, for any type of baking, it sounds like room temp for eggs in general is best.
- In using all of these eggs, most recipes only call for egg whites...NOW, what to do with all of these unwanted egg yolks? Last week, we made homemade custard () but we can't do that every week or I'll gain all of my lost weight back!
- Bakerella (gosh, she knows all!) also advised the following two tips to keep your cake as moist as possible: a) to wrap the slightly cooled cake in saran wrap to capture moisture and 2) create a sugar water mix to spray on your cake layers to create ongoing moisture throughout the life of the cake. The funny thing about this mix is that hummingbirds would love it, as it's quite close to the concoction we make for them (sans red dye).
- Superfine sugar - no, it's not good looking sugar. Actually, it is granulated sugar crystals that have been ground into even finer sugar crystals. You can make your own via a food processor. Powdered sugar is not interchangeable for superfine sugar.
Recipe for Test #3:
Dry ingredients...
2 and 3/4 cups of flour
1 and 3/4 cup of super fine sugar
2 teaspoon of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of salt
Wet ingrdients...
3/4 cup unsalted butter
5 egg whites
1 cup of milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
Cream butter and then add egg whites one at a time untill mixed. Add milk, vanilla, and almond extract. Sift all dry ingredients, then add to wet ingredients. Fills two 8 inch rounds! Bake 325- 350 for 20 to 30 minutes!
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