Chocolate. Yeah, chocolate is good. Sweets are good. Just in time for the holiday season, Advanced Baking and Pastry is here, just in the nick of time! Chocolate is good. Oh, did I say that already?

So what exactly is the lure of that sweet little (in some cases not so little) treat at the end of the meal? Let's face it.  It tastes wonderful!  And everyone loves dessert right?  It is that special treat that we use as a reward for accomplishing a day's task, reaching a goal or just because. We can barely walk by the time we are reaching for a chocolate chip cookie to finish off the meal. The contrast of the sweet flavors following the savory just seems 'right'. So we can safely say that the majority of us just love dessert. This, as it turns out, is a good situation for the pastry chef.

Baking, in and of itself, is a very profitable branch of the kitchen. Consider that the bulk of ingredients used - flour, sugar, eggs, cream, chocolate, etc. - are relatively inexpensive when compared to the stars of the savory pallet - primarily proteins such as beef, poultry, lamb, seafood and game. And even when a more expensive ingredient is used, it manages to balance out in the final cost of the product. Why? There is a 'perceived value' when it comes to dessert. Guests do not tend to scoff at a four-dollar piece of cake because it is their reward at the end of the meal. When presented creatively, the four-dollar slice of cake becomes a bargain and can perhaps be promoted to a higher price bracket. For these reasons, as well as others, baking can be very profitable.

The Chemistry of Cake
To understand the chemistry of what happens when a cake is baking, we need to understand one of the main ingredients that goes into it - butter. Butter is best at room temperature - which is technically about 65 degrees. (Ok, all of you Floridians can stop laughing now.) When butter sits too long and becomes too warm, a cake will not be successful. The reason for this is because butter is fat. How the fat becomes encapsulated will determine the eveness of the cake. When you are adding sugar to the fat, the sugar crystal makes a pocket of air in the fat. You want a stable fat mixture so that you can have an even distribution of air throughout the cake.

To help you in the quest, there are two methods to make your cake batter. The first of which is the basic creaming method. In this process, you cream together the fat and sugar, add eggs one at a time (to ensure a proper emulsification) and then add half of the dry ingredients followed by the wet ingredients, followed by the rest of the dry ingredients. This is probably the method you are most familiar with.

But the two-stage method for making cakes has a lot of merit. I truly didn't understand until I saw the interior of two cakes - one prepared in both methods. The two-stage method produced a cake that was far more even, uniform and practically no tunnels (holes). So, I like this one. Bascially, it's simple. First combine your flour, sugar and fat together until it looks like sand. (This helps to create those nice even air cells.) Next, add a part of the liquid ingredients until well combined. Then add the rest (including eggs, one at at time). This method does require a lot a scraping down on the bowl however.

Another thing to consider when you a making cakes is that there are different kinds of fat. Butter, of course, adds flavor, but also adds color. In the case of white cakes, you would not want this color so a shortening would be of benefit in this case. It is also less expensive and lasts longer than butter. Shortening also has a higher melting point (105 tp 110) and tends to coat the inside of the mouth. So keep this in mind with baking with it. Also keep in mind that it contains a high amount of trans-fatty acids.

And to round out how ingredients can affect a cake, here is a reference chart to let you know what is what:

Happy Days Are Here Again!
Photo Gallery