Experimental cookery

A variation of the cake-mixer method is to put everything in the mixing bowl at once and then combine the ingredients. The texture of the cake thus obtained for any given recipe depends largely upon the tempera- ture of the ingredients when combined. If all the ingredients are at the optimum or ideal temperature for combining, excellent textures may be obtained. Longer mixing is also required than is usual after the flour is added, if the butter and sugar have not been thoroughly creamed. Emulsion method. This method of mixing cake is one evolved in the author's laboratory. If an oil-in-water emulsion is desired in a cake batter, why not mix the batter by a method that will give the most stable emul- sion? The oil or melted fat is added gradually to the beaten egg exactly as in making mayonnaise. The sugar is added to the emulsion and next the flour and milk. This method of mixing is a poor one for making cake. The cake is more rubbery and tough when mixed by this method. This is logical, for the fat being dispersed in spheres has proportionally less surface area, and being surrounded by the emulsifying agents, the egg and flour, has less shortening power and hence the cake is more elastic and tough. For the same reason the fat is not as evident to the taste as when the cake is mixed by the conventional or cake-mixer methods. If the emulsion breaks, as it often does with the proportion of fat and eggs used in cakes, the texture of the cake is better than if it had not broken. If the tempera- ture of the ingredients is such that the fat does not remain melted, the oil-in-water emulsion is also likely to break. A better texture is then obtained. Conventional-sponge. Cakes made of oil by the conventional method always have a large portion of the oil dispersed as an oil-in-water emulsion. See Fig. 65. Nearly the same result was obtained when soft, grainy lards were used. Since this distribution of the fat results in a tougher, less de- sirable cake than when the major portion of the oil or fat forms a thin film at the air/crumb interface, methods of mixing to obtain the latter dis- tribution of the fat seemed desirable. It was noted that a spice cake made METHODS OF MIXING CAKES 489 Fig. 63. — The plain cake recipe, Formula I, was used for cakes shown in Figs. 57, 63, and 64. The above cake is made from partially creamed sugar, butter, and egg as shown in Figs. 59 and 60. Fig. 64. — The above cake is made by method shown in Figs. 61 and 68. The flour and milk were added in the same manner as for the cakes shown in Figs. 57 and 63. from soft, grainy lard, but with no egg, had excellent, very velvety tex- ture. Then it was observed that after the egg was added to the cake batter the tendency to disperse the soft fat as an oil-in-water emulsion was in- creased. From this premise Martin developed several methods of mixing to use with lard in cake. When the egg was thoroughly mixed with the milk and the milk added as usual the texture of the cakes improved. The conventional-sponge method gave still better results. The conventional-sponge method has been used in a series of studies by McLean, Stone, Buel, Minard, and Myers. The recipe used for this method Is Formula I. with Yz cup of fat and 1^ cups of sugar. But a good creamed 490 BATTERS AND DOUGHS