CAKE BALANCING FORMULA
A normal starting point in discussing cake balancing is the old-fashioned pound cake. This cake is made of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs in equal parts. As bakers experimented with the basic recipe over the year, they reduced the quantities of sugar, fat, and eggs, and compensated by adding milk. This is the origin of the modern butter cake.
The general rules for balancing creaming-method cakes made with butter or regular shortening are followed:
A normal starting point in discussing cake balancing is the old-fashioned pound cake. This cake is made of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs in equal parts. As bakers experimented with the basic recipe over the year, they reduced the quantities of sugar, fat, and eggs, and compensated by adding milk. This is the origin of the modern butter cake.
The general rules for balancing creaming-method cakes made with butter or regular shortening are followed:
- The sugar is balanced against the flour. In most creaming method cakes, the weight of sugar is less than or equal to the weight flour.
- The fat is balanced against the eggs.
- The eggs and liquids are balanced against the flour. Balancing one ingredient against another, as indicated in the preceding guidelines, means that if one ingredient is increased or decreased, then the balancing ingredients must also be adjusted. For example, if the fat is increased, then the eggs must be increased to keep the formula in balance. With the devilment of emulsified shortening, it became possible to increase the quantities of sugar, eggs, and liquids. For example, the weight of sugar in high-ratio cakes is greater than the weight of flour, yet the formula is still balance. Similarly, the quantity of liquid may be greater because the emulsifiers in the shortening keep the battery stable. Nevertheless, the general principles of balancing, as outlined above. Still hold. If one ingredient is increased other ingredients must be adjusted to compensate. A common practice in balancing the formula is to decide on the sugar/flour ratio and then balance the rest of the ingredients against these. The following guidelines are helpful in this regard:
- If the eggs are increased, increase the shortening.
- If extra milk solids are added as an enrichment, add an equal weight of water.
- If cocoa is added, add water equal in weight to 75 to 100% of the cocoa.
- If cocoa or bitter chocolate is added, increase the amount of sugar to as much as 180% in creaming-method cakes. This is to account for the starch content of the cocoa and chocolate.
- In cakes to be baked in very large units, use less liquid because less water will evaporate during baking.
- If a liquid sugar is added, reduce other liquids slightly.
- If large quantities of moist ingredients such as applesauce or mashed bananas, are added, reduce the liquid. Extra-large additions of moist ingredients may also require increasing the flour and eggs.
- Use less baking powder with a creamed batter than two-stage batter because the creamed batters get more aeration in the creaming stage.
The chef was her own miracle. She saw a brilliance in food, a potential to help and heal others, a way to show them how the sublime was simply a mixture of the ordinary. It was her genius at play, seeing what the rest of us didn't. I guess that's why we called it her culinary magic and joked that her spoon was a wand carved from the spirit tree. Either way, she made us all so happy, food does that, right? It feeds the soul, brings smiles and bonds, makes everything so much better
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