Cakes

Question 1

What are the main reasons a cake made using the creaming method might fail?

Answer 1

• A heavy and dense cake would be caused by overfolding or a curdled cake mixture
• Bubbles on the surface would be caused by a delay going into the oven
• The cake would dome if oven was too high, tin too small or too much raising agent
• Sinking in the centre would be due to the cake being under baked or oven door was open too early

Question 2

What are the main reasons a cake made with the melting method fails?

Answer 2

• These cakes are very likely to collapse if the oven doors are opened too early
• If there are a lot of bubbles on the surface it would also indicate a delay going into the oven.
• If the cake is sour or greenish in colour, it would indicate too much raising agent.

Question 3

What are the main reasons a cake made with the whisking method would fail?

Answer 3

• Overfolding will result in loss of volume and underfolding will result in lumps of flour.

Question 4

What are basic quantity’s for a Victoria Sandwich?

Answer 4

A classic Victoria sponge uses equal weight of butter, sugar, eggs and flour - 225g

Question 5

How do you tell if a creamed cake is cooked?

Answer 5

Hold your hand gently over the top of the cake and it should feel springy and not leave an indent when lightly pressed. It should be well risen, golden, slightly shrinking away from edges.

Question 6

How do you tell if a melted cake is cooked?

Answer 6

A skewer test is the most efficient way to test to see if the cake is cooked and depending on the cake, it will either be clean (gingerbread) or still have some moist crumb visible (brownies)

Question 7

How do you tell if a whisked cake is cooked?

Answer 7

It must be very gently pressed and it should spring back. It should also be slightly shrunken away from the sides.

Question 8

How do you prepare a swiss roll tin?

Answer 8

You need to create an A4 size box using paper clips and 2 pieces of baking parchment. This box then sits in a shallow swiss roll tin.

Question 9

How do you prepare a Victoria sponge tin?

Answer 9

Make sure the tin is prepared by greasing with oil spray and lining with a disc of baking parchment. Don’t heavily oil the tin otherwise the cake edges will become crisp.

Question 10

How do you prepare a gingerbread tin?

Answer 10

The tins are usually lined with baking parchment (non-stick paper) so they can be lifted out when cooled and cut.