Baking a Cake, And Other Mysteries

just out of the pan rhubarb cake

Baking is one of those things that people think is really hard, and they’re right; it is. But you know what? It’s not that hard.

Yes, if you want to make a wedding cake, you need to know your shit. If you want to screw around with the moisture content of sponge cakes, or specifically modify recipes in other ways, then, sure, you need to understand all the elements you’re working with. But hey, you’ve seen the Betty Crocker Cookbook, right? You can bake a freaking cake.

Some cakes, for sure, are easier than others. Pound cake is not genoise. Likewise, a chiffon cake is not *succes*. I like all four of these cakes, though, all for different reasons, not the least of which is how easy some of them are to make compared to others.

For example, I’m a big fan of measuring by weight. Speed, accuracy and cleanup all support that. I break up soft butter in the mixing bowl, then drop the bowl on the scale, tare it and add the sugar (no, I don’t pull the bowl asunder; ‘tare’ means to zero the scale from weight that you’re not interested in, like the weight of a bowl). While that’s creaming, I add flour, then baking soda, then salt to another bowl on the scale, and I haven’t dirtied a measuring cup or spoon yet. Ditto the eggs, especially if you’re a farmers’ market shopper. Most US recipes call for large eggs, which, without the shell, weigh 1.75 ounces, extra-large eggs (very common at farmers’ markets) are a quarter ounce more per egg, which is around a 15% difference. Not a huge difference with one egg. Two? Eh. Three? That’s almost half an egg more. You have to watch that. Imagine in a bakery when you’re cracking 144 at a time, you’d be amazed how much white gets lost. Weighing your eggs is never a bad thing.

Another reason to like a cake recipe is its being bullet proof, like my mom’s famous 1-2-3-4 cake. I’ve made that cake with a wooden spoon and soviet-era baking soda from way back in the fridge, mixed in a soup pot, baked in frying pans. Another reason to love this puppy is that you have everything you need for it lying around. Plus, I’ve had this cake made with margarine- which isn’t even food, really- many times and it’s fine. Not great, but fine.

Another reason to like a cake is its versatility. For example, [Eggbeater]( http://eggbeater.typepad.com/shuna/2006/12/cornmeal_fresh_.html) had a great cake recipe a while back for a sour cream cake with cornmeal and rhubarb. It’s a very acidic batter (sour cream + fruit = low [PH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH)), which means it can party hard with baking soda (remember the volcano from 5th grade science?), and since you’ve got fresh fruit in the batter, it’s a total conspiracy of liquid. This means- if you know what you’re doing- you can screw around a little. I made mine with rhubarb and nectarines, twice the amount of brown sugar (and I used dark brown, not the prescribed light) and slightly more egg (I used extra large eggs). I did cut back on the milk, though, because of the extra egg and the nectarines (I used a total of more veg/fruit than the recipe called for), and cloves stood in for cardamom. I love cardamom, but I didn’t have any. And, hey, I like cloves. Oh, and I used a lot more nutmeg than I know the author would have approved of, but I like nutmeg, too.

Rhubarb Cake Mise

One thing I’d like to mention here, I get asked a lot of questions by people who want to know why a certain cake recipe didn’t come out as planned. In my experience, the answer to 75% of those questions is either over or under mixing. You need to look at your creaming butter; it will start to change color slightly and seem increased in volume. Don’t mix the batter completely between additions of wet and dry; there will be time for homogeneity later. And please, for god’s sake, **scrape down, scrape down, scrape down**. Notice how half the batter is on top of the paddle and ¾ of the way up the bowl? Guess what: that’s not getting mixed. While it’s true that your leavening has a limited useful time before the cake goes in the oven, it’s not that limited. **Scrape down the sides**.

Finished Rhubarb Cake

My nectarine rhubarb cake came out great, you’ll be pleased to know, with just enough rhubarb throughout, and chunks of chewy nectarine at the top, fragrant with meyer lemon zest and the faintest whiff of clove. You can just sense the cornmeal in your mouth, but it’s a welcome complication.

Go find some cakes you like. Tell me about them.

Listening: Dolly Parton “Little Sparrow” Little Sparrow