Baking Cakes and Sponges Overview

Ingredients for Cakes and Sponges

• Two major ingredients used in baking cakes are fat (like butter) and liquid.
• These ingredients should not be mixed together.
• Care should be taken when combining them.

Combining Ingredients

• Use a spatula or wooden spoon to combine dry ingredients (flour, salt, leavening agents).
• Stir dry ingredients to create a well.
• Ensure wet ingredients are thoroughly combined before adding them to the well.
• Use a rubber scraper to scrape around the edges of the bowl.

Cake Types

• Gateau: A very light sponge cake often decorated with icings or fillings. Fresh fruit and whipped cream are commonly used. It's best eaten soon after preparation.
• Torte: A layered cake filled with whipped cream, jams, or fruit. Often uses higher quality ingredients, which makes it more expensive than a cake. The texture is heavier, compared to a cake, as it often uses ground nuts, meal, or crumbs.
• Cakes: Lighter and fluffier than Gateau, cakes last longer.

Staling

• Staling is the term used to describe bread and cake products that lose moisture from starch.

Cake Components

• Base cake: The foundation of cakes, essential for assembling and preparing Gateau.
• Cake base types include:
  • Cake base
  • Pastry base
  • Sponge base
  • Meringue base
  • Japonaise base

Cream Fillings

• Aside from the base cake, cream is an important ingredient for Gateau.
• Cakes are often combined or filled with a variety of creams, jams, mousses, and fruits to decorate the base cake.

Decorative Ingredients

• When the base cake is covered or filled, decorations like nuts, fruits, and chocolate are used.

Glazes

• Glazes are applied to cakes to add flavour and visual appeal.

Basic Cake Ingredients

• Cakes are made by combining flour, leavening agents, and liquid ingredients.
• Proper mixing is crucial for a good and firm cake texture.

Important Baking Considerations

• The amount of fat and sugar will determine the resulting tender texture of the cake.
• Accuracy is critical in baking.

Flour, Sugar and Fat in Baking

• Flour: The primary ingredient in baking; holds ingredients together, adds texture, shape and strength.
• Sugar: Sweetens the cake, affecting its moisture, tenderness and softness.
• Fat: Tenderizes the product, allows browning, provides moisture, and aerates the bake product among other effects. -Solid fat/plastic fat: Allows air bubbles to incorporate improving volume of the cake. -Liquid fat: Cannot hold air, can be used in small amounts, often for healthy recipes.

Eggs

• Separated egg whites are used for leavening, creating a light and airy cake structure.
• Egg yolks provide emulsion, color, flavor, nutrients, and moisture retention.

Leavening Agents

• Leavening agents cause batter to rise.
• There are three ways to leaven a cake:
  • Incorporation of air during mixing
  • Chemical leavening
  • Leavening by the vapor pressure produced in the oven

Liquids

• Milk is a common liquid used in cakes, performing functions like dissolving salt and sugar.
• Other liquids can be used for flavoring, such as syrups, fruit extracts, and citrus.

Cake Fillings

• Choose filling to complement cake flavour, required storage of the cake and the occasion.
• Fillings can be sensitive to warm temperature, so choose accordingly
• Amount of filling depends on the type of filling, type of cake, number of layers, and preferences.

Types of Fillings

• Butter cream
• American Butter Cream
• French Butter cream
• Italian Butter Cream
• Swiss Buttercream
• Crème Chiboust
• Crème Patisserie
• Boiled creams (custards, bavarois, wine creams)
• Ganache (chocolate with butter or fresh cream)
• Fresh/cooked cheese fillings
• Fresh fruits
• Imitation cream-based fillings (marzipan, nougat)