A couple of you wrote in asking what I intend to give up for Lent this year. The answer is, the consumable that I look forward to most at the end of a long, hard day of blogging: a glass of wine. So no alcohol for me for 40 days. I did the same thing […]
READ ONIf you’ve ever wondered why so many of the cakes of the Old World are so chock-full of spices and rich, sweet ingredients, Fat Tuesday provides a little insight. It precedes Ash Wednesday, which, in addition to its significance as a holy day of repentance, kicks off the longest period of fasting in the Catholic […]
READ ONAnd I haven’t even mentioned it, much less made a king cake or pączek. I get so wrapped up in my little projects. He’s wishing you all very full bellies this evening — and far too much of whatever it is you may be considering giving up for Lent.
READ ONThe primary advantage is the one I mentioned: tenderness. A layer cake made via the two-stage method simply melts in the mouth. The trade-off that’s made in the interest of that tenderness is height, and to some extent, lightness. Less activated gluten may mean a rich, fall-apart mouthfeel, but it also means the cake has […]
READ ONI mean, it doesn’t appear under your “mixing methods” links, Joe! That’s true, and maybe it should, since it’s a perfectly viable alternative to the creaming method, even superior to it in some ways. What exactly does it involve? Unlike the standard creaming method — whereby the sugar and fat are beaten together, then the […]
READ ONYesterday’s post on cake and television really seemed to pop the cap on a lot of pent-up frustration with the Food Network. I received a variety of complaints, about everything from their seeming lack of interest in teaching people about how to cook anymore, to what some see as pervasive testing problems with their recipes. […]
READ ONCongratulations to reader Ellen M., who was the first to chime in with this correct — and succinct —response to the Joe Pastry “Spot the Difference” challenge: Most of the recipes for cakes that I have found call for creaming the butter and sugar till light, then adding dry and liquid ingredients alternately. This one […]
READ ONA few of you folks seemed to think I came down a little hard on the whole giant decorative cake concept (which I will henceforth call the “entertainment cake”) in my Friday post. I’ll dispute that, since what I think I was really doing was stating a preference. Some cakes are meant to be looked […]
READ ONFabulous cash and prizes (offer null and void on planet Earth) await the first non-professional baker who can tell me what the difference is between the below-posted (actually linked) yellow cake recipe and pretty much every other layer cake recipe they’ve ever seen. Ready….go!
READ ONThis recipe is based on Rose Levy Berenbaum’s excellent All Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake, adapted slightly to my own tastes and techniques. Yellow Butter Cake 6 large egg yolks 1 cup milk 2 teaspoons vanilla 13 1/2 ounces (3 cups) cake flour, sifted 10 1/2 ounces (1 1/2 cups) sugar 1 tablespoon plus 1 […]
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