Cake-Making

cake-making lays much emphasis on texture. Indeed, for the consumer, texture is the most obvious feature which distinguishes cakes from other cereal products. A high proportion of enriching ingredients inhibits the formation of gluten, giving a more tender product than bread; and a soft, spongy ‘risen’ crumb sets cakes apart from biscuits and pastry.

Nowadays four basic methods are used in Britain and countries with similar baking traditions. All involve producing a batter which entraps tiny air bubbles. This is poured into a mould and baked. Heat causes the air to expand and make the cake rise; eventually protein and starch in the liquid phase of the cake coagulate and gelatinize, giving what in scientific terms is a stable foam and in common parlance a cake.

Many of the properties of cake batters are derived from the careful use of beaten egg to trap air. This is best seen in the ‘whisking’ method, used to make the original forms of sponge cake, known as savoy and génoise. This starts with prolonged whisking of eggs and sugar which incorporates air, distributing it through the mixture as tiny bubbles. Immediately before baking, flour is folded into the batter. During baking the air expands, leavening the mixture with a network of little holes surrounded by walls of coagulated egg proteins; hence the name ‘sponge cake’.

The ‘creaming’ method is the other main way of making cakes; it always incorporates fat, and the results are known as ‘shortened’ cakes. Sugar is mixed or ‘creamed’ with fat to a soft, fluffy mass, incorporating air; eggs are beaten in, one by one; and finally flour is folded in, usually with the addition of baking powder. During baking the air bubbles in this heavier mixture are augmented by tiny pockets of carbon dioxide gas generated by the baking powder when moisture and heat are applied. An example of the creaming method is the victoria sandwich cake.

Shortened cakes requiring low proportions of fat may be made by the ‘rubbing in’ method, the fat and flour being worked together before the other ingredients are added. rock cakes are made this way.

The ‘melting’ method (‘muffin method’ in the USA), is used for making some types of heavy cakes such as parkin and some sorts of gingerbread; the fat, sugar, and any liquid required are heated gently, before beating in eggs, flour, and baking powder.

There are several variants on the basic recipe for shortened (creamed method) cakes.

• Sometimes the baking powder is replaced by bicarbonate of soda plus an acid ingredient such as vinegar or cider or buttermilk. The two react together to give carbon dioxide; the finished cake may be called a soda cake or a cider cake or a vinegar cake.

• Soft fats developed specifically for baking allow a ‘dump’ or ‘all in one’ method to be used, in which all ingredients are placed in the bowl of an electric mixer and intensively worked.

Two major reservoirs of skill in cake baking exist: the (usually male) pâtissier who has learnt the classical tradition as a trade; and the housewife, whose skills are based on informal traditions derived from friends and family, but whose cakes may be just as accomplished as those made by professional bakers.

Within Europe, the Scandinavians and the British make a speciality of home baking. The Swiss, Germans, and Austrians (particularly the Viennese) are accomplished bakers, both at home and professionally. In France and S. Europe pâtissiers are more important than home bakers.

1. Reading Olney et al. (1980);
2. Maher (1982).