Christmas is here again and with it comes the pleasant smells of cakes, cookies, biscuits, pies, rolls and croissants from the kitchen. For those of us who like to bake and cook, it’s the time, we bring out our baking books and search out recipes for Christmas bakes that have stood the test of time. They can never be obsolete! These old school recipes have transcended time even if methods of preparing them may have become digital, there is still something unique about baking a Christmas cake or a batch of biscuits or cookies the old fashion way. And it’s tastier too. This Christmas season we will be focusing on cake making. I will also give you one or two recipes you can try out for Christmas and the New year celebrations.
But first of all, we have to know the basic types of cakes, so you can understand a cake recipe when you stumble into one. Stumbling into recipes as a kid and teenager was my thing. I remember if I borrowed a magazine from a friend in class then in high school which was illegal and against the school rules and regulations, the first thing I would look for was the recipe page. I eventually had lots of loose recipe papers which I had to later on copy into notebooks. And when I had my first culinary teaching job in a catering school many years later, I fell on those notes to teach my students. What an irony!
So, for a start, we would look at the Basic Sandwich Cake, Sponge Cake, Chocolate Cake and Swiss Roll.
A sandwich cake is fat(butter or margarine) creamed with sugar while a sponge cake is fatless, that is no butter or margarine is used. Here, eggs are whisked with the sugar until enough air is incorperated into the mixture and it’s heavy before folding in the flour. The chocolate cake can also be made as a whisked sponge cake or a cake made by creaming the fat and sugar together. The Swiss roll is also fatless and whisked as the sponge cake. But this time it is baked in a Swiss roll tin or Jelly roll pan and filled with any kind of filling depending on the recipe when it is cooked.
Basic Sandwich Cake
100g butter or margarine
100g castor or granulated sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising or plain flour
1-2 teaspoons baking powder if using plain flour
Prepare and weigh all ingredients. Sift the flour to remove any lumps. If you’re using baking powder, sift it with the flour so that all the ingredients are evenly and thoroughly incorporated. Butter or margarine and eggs should be at room temperature. Take them out of the refrigerator in advance . Grease a 20cm/8inch cake tin or cake pan, or two 18cm/7inch Sandwich tins or pans. You can line with greased greaseproof paper or wax paper. Preheat oven to moderately hot 160 degrees or Gas mark 3.
Put the softened butter or margarine and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy. You can also use a hand mixer or a cake mixer. If you’re using these devices ensure that fat and sugar are creamed properly and it’s light and fluffy. Beat in the whole eggs one at a time, adding a little flour with the second egg. If the eggs are added all at once or if they are too cold, the fat and sugar mixture can curdle. Also ensure fresh eggs are used. You can break the eggs in a bowl first before adding to the fat and sugar mixture. This will help detect a bad egg and prevent you from breaking it into the mixture. If the recipe necessitates flavorings such as vanilla essence, grated lemon rind, etc, then now is the time to mix them in before adding the flour.
But first of all, we have to know the basic types of cakes, so you can understand a cake recipe when you stumble into one. Stumbling into recipes as a kid and teenager was my thing. I remember if I borrowed a magazine from a friend in class then in high school which was illegal and against the school rules and regulations, the first thing I would look for was the recipe page. I eventually had lots of loose recipe papers which I had to later on copy into notebooks. And when I had my first culinary teaching job in a catering school many years later, I fell on those notes to teach my students. What an irony!
So, for a start, we would look at the Basic Sandwich Cake, Sponge Cake, Chocolate Cake and Swiss Roll.
A sandwich cake is fat(butter or margarine) creamed with sugar while a sponge cake is fatless, that is no butter or margarine is used. Here, eggs are whisked with the sugar until enough air is incorperated into the mixture and it’s heavy before folding in the flour. The chocolate cake can also be made as a whisked sponge cake or a cake made by creaming the fat and sugar together. The Swiss roll is also fatless and whisked as the sponge cake. But this time it is baked in a Swiss roll tin or Jelly roll pan and filled with any kind of filling depending on the recipe when it is cooked.
Basic Sandwich Cake
100g butter or margarine
100g castor or granulated sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising or plain flour
1-2 teaspoons baking powder if using plain flour
Prepare and weigh all ingredients. Sift the flour to remove any lumps. If you’re using baking powder, sift it with the flour so that all the ingredients are evenly and thoroughly incorporated. Butter or margarine and eggs should be at room temperature. Take them out of the refrigerator in advance . Grease a 20cm/8inch cake tin or cake pan, or two 18cm/7inch Sandwich tins or pans. You can line with greased greaseproof paper or wax paper. Preheat oven to moderately hot 160 degrees or Gas mark 3.
Put the softened butter or margarine and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy. You can also use a hand mixer or a cake mixer. If you’re using these devices ensure that fat and sugar are creamed properly and it’s light and fluffy. Beat in the whole eggs one at a time, adding a little flour with the second egg. If the eggs are added all at once or if they are too cold, the fat and sugar mixture can curdle. Also ensure fresh eggs are used. You can break the eggs in a bowl first before adding to the fat and sugar mixture. This will help detect a bad egg and prevent you from breaking it into the mixture. If the recipe necessitates flavorings such as vanilla essence, grated lemon rind, etc, then now is the time to mix them in before adding the flour.
Lastly, fold in the sifted flour using a metal spoon. Do not beat the cake batter or the cake will become hard after it is cooked. Fold the flour in and mix it in gently. Do not also over mix at this stage as essential air can be knocked out. Spread the mixture into the prepared cake tin or pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or 25-30 minutes if baking two smaller cakes. If the surface of the cake is browning too quickly, cover with foil or greaseproof (wax) paper. Allow to cool in the tin or pan for about 10 minutes before turning out on to a wire cooling rack or tray. An example of a sandwich cake is the Victoria Sandwich Cake.
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