Cake Baking Tips - Part I

This newsletter is the 1st out of six installments from the cake baking tips series which will focus on General/Overall cake baking tips just to get you started. Subsequent newsletters will focus on more specific topics such as baking temperature, cookware, ingredients and techniques, mixing, baking, frosting, and what to do when your cake doesn't turn out as expected. So bake that cake and eat it too!

• If you want a perfectly flat top use the flat bottom of your cake for the top. (Flip it over)
• If your oven is too hot your cake will rise too much in the middle. Wait till your oven is fully preheated and use an oven thermometer to ensure proper oven temperature.
• Add moisture and flavors with Simple Syrup, add extract flavors or espresso flavorings to your syrup and brush it on.
• If your cake is too high in the center take a long serrated knife and cut the top off, but wait until your cake has cooled before cutting.
• If your cake is crumbly and hard to frost brush on a little Simple Syrup and freeze. It will set up and be ready for frosting.
• Sprinkle chopped nuts onto the sides of a frosted cakes. Walnuts Pecans and Almonds make good decoration and it also adds flavor and nutrition.
• Investing in top quality chocolate, fruit fillings, nuts etc, makes a tremendous difference. Your cake will taste its best when starting with the best ingredients.
• Always use fresh eggs. Eggs separate best when cold, egg whites need to be at room temperature for greater volume when whipped, remember this when making a meringue.
• Real Butter gives the best flavor. A cake is a treat so live a little.
• When decorating a cake with icing, you can make a quick decorating tube. Put the icing in a heat-safe zip-lock plastic bag. Immerse the zip-lock bag in simmering water until the icing is melted. Snip off the tip of one corner, and squeeze the icing out of the bag to decorate.

Pastry Chef Demonstration - Ron Ben-Israel

I started my 4th of July 5-day weekend by attending another wonderful chef demonstration at The French Culinary Institute. Chef Ron, dubbed "The Wedding Cake Master", attempted to ice, structure, decorate, disassemble, cut and serve a three-tiered wedding cake in under two hours... and that is just what he did, all the while entertaining us with the history of how he got started in the pastry business and answering our eager questions. The cake was of course, delicious. I am having a great learning experience at these demonstrations and can't wait to be able to apply these techniques to my own creations.

Chef Demonstration at The French Culinary Institute

This past Tuesday I attended a chef demonstration of wonderful sugar work created by Master Chef Jacques Torres at The French Culinary Institute. It was an incredible presentation and a great learning experience. He provided step my step instructions from boiling the sugar, pouring and cooling the sugar to the final creation of these lovely pieces (a rose, strawberry & butterfly, an orchard, and a ribbon. I honestly felt as if I could go home and re-create these on my own and I can't wait for the next chef demonstration.