On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1056

Noaeration:Ingredientsstirredtogether
withminimalincorporationofair
Dissolved-sugar cakes:pain d’épices,
spicecake
Mixing Cake Batters In cake making, the
mixing step doesn’t just combine the
ingredients into a homogeneous batter: it has
the critical purpose of incorporating air
bubbles into the batter, and thereby strongly
influencing the final texture of the cake. The
variouswaysofaeratingthebatterhelpdefine
families of cakes (see box, p. 557). They
involvebeatingthesugarand/ortheflourinto
thefat,theeggs,oralltheliquidingredients.
Thefinesolidparticlescarrytinyairpockets
ontheirsurfaces,andtheparticlesandbeating
utensils carry those pockets into the fat or
liquid. Flour is often added only after the
foamisformed,andthenbygentlyfoldingit
in, not beating, to avoid popping a large


fraction of the bubbles, and to avoid
developing gluten. (For folding as a mixing
technique, see p. 112.) Mixing the dry flour
and fat together also prevents the gluten
proteinsfrombondingstronglytoeachother.
Preleavenedshorteningandelectricmixers
havehelpedtoturncakemakingintoafarless
oneroustaskthanitoncewas,butthemixing
stagecanstilltake15minutesormore.

Bakersoftenmodifyorcombineelements
ofthesetechniques.Inthe“pastry-blend”
method,theflour,sometimeswiththesugar,
iscreamedwiththefat,thentheliquid
ingredientsareaddedandmixedlongenough
toaugmenttheinitialaeration.
Anotheralternativeisacombinationofthe
fatandeggaerations:someofthesugaris
usedtoaeratethefat,sometheeggs,andthe
twofoamsarethencombined.
Baking Cakes Cake baking can be divided
into three stages: expansion, setting, and