I have to make a cake each month to take to bingo. Most of the other ladies bring a HUGE cake, and mine always looks short and thin. I have asked some of them how they get their cake to rise so much. One lady said she uses milk instead of water. The other lady adds baking soda or baking powder, she can't remember which. We all start out with the same cake mixes, they are given to us. What am I doing wrong? Any tips for a bigger cake?
On Thu 10 Feb 2005 05:40:37a, wrote in rec.food.baking:
When my grandmother first tried cake mixes she didn't like them. She began substituting whole milk for the water. She also added an extra egg, but she separated the eggs, beating the yolks into the batter and beating the whites separately, lastly folding them into the batter. Her method produced a bigger, richer cake. She also baked her cakes in 3 thinner layers, but when stacked with icing it made them a bit taller.
Wayne
Are the bigger cakes better, or just bigger? Are you required to use the cake mixes, or could you donate them to the poor and make a decent cake from scratch?
I usually just avoid cake mixes. They are made to be simple but not really great. You could try adding baking powder to the cake mix before adding the wet ingredients but if you add too much it will not taste good. I can only guess but maybe 1/2 a teaspoon or less.
Another trick is to use a sieve on the cake mix. This will add air to the mix.
Also, I make my cakes light and fluffy by using whipped egg whites. Adding air to the egg whites basically.
Finally, the finished product can be made to look bigger by adding more filling. I'll bake three or four cakes then stack them. The more filling I place between the layers the bigger the cake will be.
Darrell
P.S. if you a stacking many layers you might need to level the cakes. If you bake them in really thick pans they will tend to dome less and need less leveling.
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: SNIP
Try whipping the oil, eggs, and liquids for several minutes. The object is to get a LOT of fine bubbles in that mixture before adding it to the dry ingredients. Baking powder and baking soda need existing bubbles to work well.
Raj V
Seem like dressing a pig in a designer gown.
The lady asked for advise on increasing the rise of her cakes. Shirley Corriher in her book "CookWise" says that "Baking powder and soda do not make a single new bubble; they only enlarge bubbles that are already there." She advocates beating "butter and sugar for 7-8 minutes" for "mile high" cakes. I just know that since I started increasing the creaming time of butter/oils and sugar and eggs, my cakes have had a wonderful rise instead of the leaden, brownie-consistency concoctions I used to make.
Of course this is only information, to be followed or ignored or dressed as one wishes.
Raj V
I don't disagree with the theory. I simply think that a box cake is what it is. Once you start expending time, energy, and money trying to reengineer it, then you have lost all the virtue that a mix offers. That is, a mix is suppose to be above all, a dump and mix product that produces a set type of cake and allows for a wide range of variance in technique. The mix really only saves you the time that it takes to measure the flour, sugar, flavoring, and leavening - maybe five or seven minutes. It also lets you avoid extended mixing procedures designed to aerate the batter.
Rather than trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, I think the OP would be better off finding a cake recipe that made the cake she wants. I am curious about why a "big" cake is desirable. Does it taste better or keep longer? Is there a contest for the cake that traveled the longest distance and the cake that is biggest? Enquiring minds want to know.
Also, not all cakes use the creaming method. In fact, Rose Beranbaum in the "Cake Bible" discusses why she doesn't use the creaming method. I can assure you that you can get a very nice cake without creaming the fat and sugar.
A cake mix need to be modified if you want to make bigger cakes, likely you may have to slightly reduce the liquid so that the batter will be stable. Another thing is the addition of more eggs to strengthen the batter . It really depends on the type of the cake mix you are using and the options you apply to modify it to fit yourr requirements. One of the common cake mixes used by the homebakers is a complete cake mix where the eggs and milk are already in it.You just had to add water and mix, as directed ,pour into the prepared pan and bake. Unfortunately that kind of cake mix if baked on bigger pands tends to shrink a lot resulting in thinne looking cakes. In addition the cake is tender that would not be suited for extensive decoration. Now if I had to convert that particular cake say a white layer cake stable enought to suited to be decorated for a wedding cake I add some eggs and vegetable oil and reduce the water lightly to accomodate the liquids added. Yes indeed the cake crumb become creamy coloured but its very stable and attractive to decorate. The cake batter made with add water only looks thick but when you add fresh eggs and oil the batter is become slightly thinner. If I make a thick slab cakes with such modified cake mix I pour enough batter ( nearly three quarters to the pan depth, sometimes even 4/5 of the pan depth just to attain a satisifactory cake volume. That depends on the cake performance and you really need to do a trial bake to ascertain its optimum baking performance. Roy
This is a good question. Why is a "big" cake desirable?
I think the answer is presentation and texture. If I give someone a dense cake one inch cubed or I give them the same weight but less dense and three inch cubed they might feel like they received more cake. The reality is that they received more air in the same cake.
Additionally, some people like light, airy cakes. I know that given the choice between a dense, rich chocolate cake or a lemon chiffon cake with a berry compote filling and whipped cream frosting, I'd go for the chiffon cake.
Bottom line, maybe the person really wants a less dense cake and they just didn't ask well.
Then again, maybe it is an macho thing. My cake is bigger than your cake therefore I'm better than you. 8^)
I don't think we could really answer the original question without knowing why the cake needs to be bigger.
The preparation of cakes from prepared mixes is different from using the scratch recipes. Bakers can use the creaming, blending and all in method but the creaming methods seems to provide better cake volume than the blending method while the latter results in more uniform crumb structure. Indeed in the creaming process the longer beating time encourage the cake to have better volume But it must not be forgotten that excessive beating is detrimental to cake quality.. Meanwhile the all in method is best suited if you had an emulsifier at hand; or you will end up with a cake that has texture reminiscent of a muffins. Holes and muffins. Now with regards to cake mixes they are usually mixed by all in method but as you tweak out the recipe such as adding more eggs the system of mixing is more nearer to the blending methods as the liquids are added in two or three portions for even absorption in the batter.
Yes that is true that was the result of the basic research in cake baking done in the 1940's, baking powder does not create another bubble but just enlarge the existing ones. But the mixing of butter and sugar for 8 minutes does not give the same volume as mixing shortening and sugar for the same time. Butter has an inferior creaming properties if compared to all purpose shortening. It was used for the purpose of getting the best taste in cakes. But be remineded that you really had to try also alternative cake mixing methods to make a comparative experiments among them and see what really produces the best cakes according to your personal observatons.. Roy
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