More Layers to Layer Cakes
In my Oct. 1 story about layer cakes, I talk about how to use the creaming method for cakes, but I didn’t have room to go into a lot of detail about why it is so important.
Creaming is really the foundation for a good layer cake.
A butter cake’s lightness comes mostly from creaming. Sure, the baking powder will help the cake rise, but a good creamed mixture and baking powder together achieve maximum volume and lightness.
Butter tenderizes cakes by coating flour particles, preventing the formation of gluten, a protein in wheat flour. Gluten forms any time that flour gets wet. When a lot of gluten forms, it makes the cake tough; so much of the process of making a cake batter involves keeping the formation of gluten to a minimum.
Sugar dilutes gluten, so it also tenderizes cakes. During creaming, butter is whipped to trap air bubbles inside it. The sharp edges of granulated sugar crystals help create those pockets of air. Those air pockets produce a light texture, or what is called a fine crumb.
So well-done creaming not only produces a light cake with good volume, but also ensures that the butter and sugar will be well dispersed in the batter to produce a perfectly tender cake.
Speaking of gluten, you do need some of it. Flour and its gluten provide the structure to cakes. Of course, the trick is to make it a very light and delicate structure with minimal gluten formation.
Many cooks choose cake flour, because it is lower in protein — and thus lower in potential gluten formation — than all-purpose flour. But not all cooks do. Baking expert and cookbook author Nick Malgieri said he stopped using cake flour a few years because he didn’t think it made much difference. “I think the whole thing about using cake flour was from when mills didn’t really control the amount of protein in all-purpose flour,” he said, noting that now all-purpose flours have a fairly narrow range of protein contents.
How you mix the cake too affects the gluten development. That’s why recipes call for alternating small additions of flour and milk. You start with the flour so it gets coated with fat particles, for minimal gluten formation and thus a more tender cake. Alternating the dry and liquid ingredients helps the batter blend better, and helps keep the batter light and creamy.
Here’s one more recipe for a classic layer cake with a boiled icing.
Devil’s Food Cake
Recipe adapted from The Perfect Cake (Broadway Books, 2002) by Susan Purdy.
2¼ sifted all-purpose flour
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup sifted regular (natural) unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch-process)
½ cup (1stick) unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups buttermilk
1. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. (This can be made in 9-inch pans, but the cake will cook faster and be done in less time.) Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium speed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, beating slowly to blend after each addition.
4. Divide batter evenly among the prepared pans. Level the tops, then spread the batter from the centers toward the edges.
5. Bake about 35 minutes, or just until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake feels lightly spongy to the touch.
6. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run tip of a knife around the edges to loosen as needed, then invert cakes and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack. Once cool, frost with chocolate buttercream frosting, on Fluffy White Frosting.
Fluffy White Frosting
This boiled icing is adapted from Nick Malgieri’s new book, The Modern Baker (DK Publishing).
4 large egg whites
Large pinch of salt
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
1. Half-fill as saucepan with water and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Combine egg whites, salt, sugar and corn syrup in bowl of an electric mixer and whisk by hand, just to mix together.
3. Place bowl of egg-white mixture over the pan of water and reduce heat to a simmer or gentle boil. Whisk the egg-white mixture constantly until it is hot (about 130 degrees) and all of the sugar is dissolved.
4. Place the bowl on the electric mixer with the whisk attachment and whip the icing until it has cooled and become white and fluffy.
